Media, PA 19063
Biography
Paul D. Greene holds an A.B. in Music from Harvard University, magna cum laude, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is an ethnomusicologist of musical cultures of South and Southeast Asia. He is author of over thirty articles and book chapters on musical revitalization, music and technology, music and Buddhism, and other topics, co-editor of two books, and guest editor of three special issues of scholarly journals.
He has written articles on several under-documented music traditions, including Tamil oppāri weeping songs, Himalayan neku ritual music, Nepali heavy metal, and Karnatak saxophone music. His edited book, Wired for Sound: Engineering and Technologies in Sonic Cultures (ed. with Thomas Porcello) won the Society for Ethnomusicology’s 2005 Klaus P. Wachsmann Prize for Advanced and Critical Essays in Organology. Dr. Greene is also a former chair of the Popular Music Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology (PMSSEM), former Recording Review Editor of the journal Ethnomusicology, and former Review Editor of the journal Ethnomusicology OnLine.
Dr. Greene teaches courses in world music, cultural anthropology, peace and conflict studies, South Asian music, popular music studies, the evolution of jazz, and global and international studies. He delivers courses both on campus and through the Web, and takes students on education abroad programs (Global Programs) that he arranges. His courses have included immersion educational experiences in Paris, Nice, Seville, Monaco, Barcelona, Rome, Naples, Prague, Vienna, Berlin, London, Liverpool, Dublin, Galway, Greece, Cuba, and Morocco, and he also brings students on tours of the United Nations Building and National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City. In 2005 he received the university-wide George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching.
He is currently Coordinator and Chair of Penn State Brandywine Global Programs, and Coordinator, with Paul J. deGategno, of the university’s Peace and Conflict Studies Program.
Dr. Greene listens to virtually every kind of music, and he is a violinist and a keyboardist. His hobbies include hiking, playing left wing in soccer, and playing keyboards in a rock band.
Publications
SELECTED ARTICLES, EDITED JOURNAL ISSUES, AND BOOKS ORGANIZED BY TOPIC
Music Revitalization and Peacebuilding in Cambodia
“Forgotten Songs Returned to Living Musical Culture: A Success Story in Cambodian Musical Revival,” with Va Bophary. In progress.
Music and Human Rights in Nepal
"Intense Emotions and Human Rights in Nepal's Heavy Metal Scene." 2011. In Popular Music and Human Rights: World Music, ed. Ian Peddie.
Buddhist Music and Chant in Nepal and Myanmar
“Music and Civic Rivalry in the Buddhist Communitas.” Under review.
“Contemporary Buddhist Chanting and Music.” 2016. In Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism, ed. Michael Jerryson. Oxford University Press.
Mindfulness and Change in Buddhist Musical Traditions. 2004. Special issue of Asian Music, 35(2), guest-edited with Li Wei.
“Introduction: Mindfulness and Change in Buddhist Musical Traditions,” with Li Wei. Asian Music 35(2).
“Buddhism and the Musical Cultures of Asia: An Annotated Discography,” with Keith Howard, Terry E. Miller, Steven G. Nelson, Phong T. Nguyen, and Hwee-San Tan. Asian Music 35(2).
“The Dhamma as Sonic Praxis: Paritta Chant in Burmese Theravāda Buddhism.” Asian Music 35(2).
“Ordering a Sacred Terrain: Melodic Pathways of Himalayan Flute Pilgrimage.” 2003. Ethnomusicology 47(2).
Body and Ritual in Buddhist Musical Cultures. 2002. Special issue of The World of Music, 44(2), guest-edited by Paul D. Greene.
“Preface: Body and Ritual in Buddhist Musical Cultures.” The World of Music 44(2).
“Buddhism and the Musical Cultures of Asia: A Critical Literature Survey,” with Keith Howard, Terry E. Miller, Phong T. Nguyen, and Hwee-San Tan. The World of Music 44(2).
“Sounding the Body in Buddhist Nepal: Neku Horns, Himalayan Shamanism, and the Transmigration of the Disembodied Spirit.” The World of Music 44(2).
Music and Technology in Sonic Cultures
“Bollywood in the Era of Filmsong Avatars: DJing, Remixing and Change in the Film Music Industry of North India.” 2014. In More Than Bollywood: Studies in Indian Popular Music, eds. Greg Booth and Bradley Schope.
Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal around the World, eds. Jeremy Wallach, Harris M. Berger and Paul D. Greene. 2011. 381 pages. Duke University Press.
“Introduction: Affective Overdrive, Scene Dynamics, and Identity in the Global Metal Scene,” with Jeremy Wallach and Harris M. Berger. In Metal Rules the Globe.
“Electronic and Affective Overdrive: Tropes of Transgression in Nepal’s Heavy Metal Scene.” In Metal Rules the Globe.
"Musical Media and Cosmopolitanisms in Nepal’s Popular Music, 1950-2006." 2010. In South Asian Media Cultures: Audiences, Representations, Contexts, ed. Shakuntala Banaji.
“World Music.” 2008. In the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition. Macmillan Reference USA and Gale Virtual Reference Library.
“Echoes in the Valleys: A Social History of Nepali Pop in Nepal’s Urban Youth Culture, 1985-2000,” with Yubakar Raj Rajkarnikar. 2006. Echo: A Music-Centered Journal 7(1). Also published in Wave, Nepal’s popular culture magazine, cover story of the March, 2001 issue.
Wired for Sound: Engineering and Technologies in Sonic Cultures, eds. Paul D. Greene and Thomas Porcello. 2005. 288 pages. Wesleyan University Press.
“Introduction: Wired Sound and Sonic Cultures.” In Wired for Sound.
“Nepal’s Lok Pop Music: Representations of the Folk, Tropes of Memory, and Studio Technologies.” 2003. Asian Music 34(1).
“Mixed Messages: Unsettled Cosmopolitanisms in Nepali Pop.” 2001. Popular Music 20(2).
“Handheld Computers as Tools for Writing and Managing Field Data.” Field Methods 13(2).
“[Indian] Film Music: Southern Area.” 2000. Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 5.
“At the Crossroads of Languages, Musics, and Emotions in Kathmandu.” 2000. Popular Music and Society 24(3), with David Henderson.
Folk Music, Revival, and Audio Cassettes in South India
Women and Music in Sri Lanka. 2005. Special issue of The World of Music, 46(3), guest-edited with Martina Claus-Bachmann.
“Authoring the Folk: The Crafting of a Rural Popular Music in South India.” 2001. Journal of Intercultural Studies 22(2).
“Kadri Gopalnath: Saxophone Chakravathy (Emperor of the Saxophone) in the Concert Tradition of South Indian Classical Music.” 2001. The Saxophone Symposium 26.
“Professional Weeping: Music, Affect, and Hierarchy in a South Indian Folk Performance Art.” 1999. Ethnomusicology OnLine 5. Updated and republished in the Indian Folklore Research Journal 1(2).
“Sound Engineering in a Tamil Village: Playing Audio Cassettes as Devotional Performance.” 1999. Ethnomusicology 43(3).