The Department of Music is pleased to announce that Ben Fairfield (PhD University of Hawaiʻi 2017) has received a 2019-20 Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant. His project is to research Karen music, identity, and representation at the Karen Ecomuseum in Mae Sot, Thailand. He plans to be in Thailand from May-August 2020. An alumnus of the East-West Center, Ben is currently affiliate faculty with the Music Department, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and on the staff of the University of Hawaiʻi Press. His recent publications include “Ethnic and Village Unity: Symbolized or Enacted: Lahu Music-Dance and Ethnic Participation in Ban Musoe, Thailand” (Asian Music 49:2:71-105, 2018) and the English translation Forbidden Songs of the Pgaz k’Nyau of the Thai publication by Chi Suwichan Phattanaphraiwan, which appeared in Ethnomusicology Translations (SEM) in 2018.
