Jayson Beaster-Jones

Co-Investigator at UC Merced

Jayson Beaster-Jones is a Professor of Music in the Global Arts Studies Program at the University of California, Merced. An anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, he has conducted numerous years of ethnographic research in North India and has published several books on this topic. In addition to his work on media industries of India, he co-directs (with Patricia Vergara) the Gateway to Merced Project, a community-engaged oral history project that collects and archives the stories of Merced County residents belonging to diverse linguistic and geographical communities. Since 2016 he has been running Music Memory Hours in Merced in order to examine the relationships between music, autobiographical memory, and aging.

For UC CAAN, Beaster-Jones serves as Co-Investigator at UC Merced, collaborating on public programs, workshops, performances, and the development of an audiovisual archive exploring sound, music, community, and climate change in California’s Central Valley.