Visiting professor

Kevin C. Karnes is a musicologist who studies sounding expressions of identity, difference, and belonging in eastern and central Europe from the nineteenth century to the present. His work combines archival research and ethnography, engaging projects in such domains as sound studies, anthropology, philosophy, art history, Jewish studies, and Baltic studies. He is the author of four books, most recently Sounds Beyond: Arvo Pärt and the 1970s Soviet Underground (University of Chicago Press, 2021); the editor of seven volumes, including Korngold and His World (Princeton UP, 2019), and Jewish Folk Songs from the Baltics (A-R Editions, 2014); and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Musicological Society. His research has been funded by grants and awards from the ACLS (2016, 2010), the NEH (2002), and the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (2010).

As Associate Dean for the Arts in Emory College of Arts & Sciences and director of Emory Arts, Kevin works across the campus and the region to connect individuals and groups through artistic work and the conversations it sparks, focusing intently on issues of social justice, civil and human rights, and buried or forgotten histories. He is co-director of the Emory Arts & Social Justice Fellows program and faculty co-lead of Emory’s Science Gallery Atlanta initiative. This work has been supported by grants from the NEA (2021) and the Simons Foundation (2020).