Overview
The UH Ethnomusicology Program is one of the earliest in the United States and enjoys a reputation for excellence in the study of world music, especially of Asia and the Pacific. Its distinctiveness includes a location in a geo-cultural environment of cultural diversity with many active and vibrant music practices and strong relationships with musicians, scholars, and institutions throughout the Asia Pacific region. We are committed to a close mentoring of students and building their broad network of contacts.
Participation in musical performance complements and supports the academic study of theoretical issues, such as the relation of music to social change, globalization, identity, diaspora, politics, commerce, dance, and theater.
Another distinctive feature at UH is that ethnomusicology is an integral part—both in organization, and in spirit—of the Music Department, incorporating musical pluralism in all levels of the music experience, including music composition, theory, music education, and choral and instrumental performance.
Study Opportunities
Faculty
Full-Time Faculty
R. Anderson Sutton
R. Anderson Sutton is Professor of Music and head of the Ethnomusicology program at UHM, offering graduate and undergraduate courses, overseeing the performance ensembles, and supervising graduate students in Ethnomusicology. From 1982-2013 he served on the Music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught courses in ethnomusicology, led the Javanese gamelan ensemble, and served as director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
His research has focused on musical traditions of Indonesia (Java and South Sulawesi) and Korea. Recent seminar and research topics have included cultural politics and performance, music and hybridity, and intercultural musical collaboration. He is author of 3 books, 2 edited volumes, and numerous journal articles and book chapters. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Asian Music, the Association for Korean Music Research, and as founding editor of the University of Hawaiʻi Press Asia Pacific Flows series.
Kuan Yuan-Yu
KUAN Yuan-Yu (官元瑜) is Assistant Professor of the Ethnomusicology program at UHM responsible for graduate and undergraduate courses. His research focuses on issues of Indigeneity, hybridity, gender, popular music, and public policy. He has a special interest in intercultural exchange of music among Indigenous peoples of island communities in Taiwan, Ryūkyū (Okinawa), and Hawaiʻi. He is completing research on the recent 2024 Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, the 2024 Merrie Monarch, and the 2023 Aloha Festivals in Hawai’i. A second project investigates how the notion of Austronesia is musically articulated, conceptualized, and expressed in Sinophone communities.
His recent publications appear in the Asian Music journal and the edited volume China Sounds Across Borders: Migration, Mobility, and Modernity. His past associations have been as a postdoctoral fellow at National Taiwan University and at Academia Sinica. He has taught previously in the Departments of Music, Asian Studies, and East Asian Languages and Literatures at UHM.
Affiliate & Adjunct Faculty
Emeritus Faculty
Major Financial Resources for Graduate Student Support
- Graduate Assistantships: tuition waiver and stipend.
- Scholarships for students from and/or studying Asia or the Pacific: tuition waiver and living stipend.
- East-West Center Graduate Degree Fellowships: tuition waiver, stipend/allowance of $7,950/year (and up to $3,000 supplement), plus housing discount (worth $2,850 annually).
- FLAS Fellowships for Language and Area Studies: $20,000 stipend and up to $18,000 for tuition.