Dr. Sarah Hankins

Biography

Sarah Hankins is a trained ethnomusicologist whose research interests encompass sound studies of conflict in globalizing metropolises, Afro-diasporic popular musics, the history of technology, music and gender, and the sonic dimensions of clinical psychoanalysis. Her articles have been published in various academic journals, including the Black Music Research Journal, City & Society, Women & Music, Ethnomusicology Review, and Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, alongside reviews of new monographs in Popular Music journals. Currently, she is in the process of writing a book on the political aesthetics of musical nightlife among African refugees and migrants in urban Israel, which stems from her doctoral dissertation completed at Harvard University in 2015. Throughout her career, Hankins has held teaching positions at Wellesley College, Brown University, and the University of Massachusetts Boston. She serves as the Co-Chair of the Gender and Sexualities Taskforce within the Society for Ethnomusicology, where she was honored with the Marcia Herndon Award. Her past research and fieldwork received funding from the Anna Rabinowitz Fellowship at Harvard's Center for Jewish Studies. Ongoing research includes ethnographic work with the Black Lives Matter political movement and exploring the intersections of sound, violence, and memory while focusing on writing ethnographic fieldwork ethics. Additionally, Hankins served as a member of the U.S. Foreign Service from 2002 to 2009, holding positions in Tel Aviv, Washington, D.C., and Latin America, receiving Meritorious Superior Honor Awards from the Department of State for her reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As a dance music producer and DJ, she held club residencies in Boston and Tel Aviv, performed at the launch of Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation, and collaborated with electronic musicians and performance artists across a wide variety of genres. A remix collection titled Storm Long was independently released with consultation from Smithsonian Folkways.

Research Interests