Dr. Alexander Cowan

Biography

Alexander W. Cowan is a musicologist specializing in the intellectual and political history of music in the twentieth century, focusing on the intersections of music, race, and capitalism. His book project, Unsound: Cultural History of Music and Eugenics, reveals how ideas about music and musicality were weaponized by British and American eugenics movements from the 1860s to the mid-twentieth century. The research charts how music’s entanglements with eugenics shaped notions of race and whiteness during a historical period characterized by constant flux. His work demonstrates music's capacity to acquire political meaning through explorations of past projects, including the left-wing folksong revival and essays focusing on the racial politics of the phonograph. Cowan's major project expands this concern by examining unexpected appropriations of Blues music in the twentieth century—from left internationalism in the works of Benjamin Britten and W. H. Auden to amateur blues guitar performances by Reagan strategist Lee Atwater—exploring how musical genres function as terrains of political contestation. Alexander holds a PhD in Music from Harvard University and has been a Graduate Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. He also earned a Master of Music in Musicology from King’s College, London, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Oxford. He is currently a Research Fellow in the Arts at Jesus College, Cambridge.

Research Interests