Area of Expertise: Music of South Asia (India and Pakistan), Bollywood film music, South Asian American diasporic music

Additional Information: Shalini Ayyagari worked closely with a group of Manganiyar — a Muslim caste literally translated as beggar — that live in the borderland between India and Pakistan who traditionally play classical and folk music for Hindu life-cycle observances and holiday celebrations. Ayyagari documents the cultural shift in the Manganiyar’s lives and music as these largely illiterate villagers transition to a life of means influenced by cultural interactions with foreign tourists and their own travel as performers. For her Fulbright IIE–funded dissertation research on the Manganiyar community, she filmed over 200 hundred hours of footage and is currently developing a full-length documentary.

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