Dr. Varshini Narayanan

Biography

Varshini Narayanan is a Teaching Fellow in the Music Department at the University of Chicago. She holds a BA in Anthropology from Princeton University (2016) and has completed her MA in Music (2021) and is pursuing her PhD in Music and Theater Performance Studies at the University of Chicago, expected in 2025. Her dissertation, titled 'Sounding Hyphen: Cross-Cultural Performance in South Asian America,' investigates how diasporic practitioners navigate identity and artistic expression through South Asian music and classical fusion performance. Varshini has a lifelong dedication to Carnatic music as an accompanist for Bharatanatyam and has trained extensively in Western classical music and jazz. She serves as the Artistic Director of the Amarkalam Project, an Indo-jazz performance ensemble based in Chicago. In 2025, she was an Artist-in-Residence with the Princeton University Glee Club, where she incorporated ethnographic approaches in her work. Her research encompasses cross-cultural performance, autoethnography, and critical race theory, with a focus on the intersections of genre and identity. Varshini's scholarly contributions include a publication in the Routledge edited volume 'Crossover, Exchange, Appropriation: Navigating Stylistic Boundaries in the Music History Classroom' (2024).

Research Interests