Adriana Helbig

Fields

Eastern European Gypsy music, music and development aid, post-socialist cultural policies, global hip-hop (primarily in Ukraine and Uganda), music and politics, music and migration

Teaching

Introduction to World Music; Global Hip-Hop; Music, Culture, and Technology; Music and Social Change in the Balkans; Music and Sports

Selected Honors and Awards

Humanities Center Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh (2009-2010)

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/Kennan Institute (covering Russia and surrounding states), Washington DC – Title VIII-supported Research Scholar (summer 2009)

International Research and Exchange Board - Short-term Travel Grant to Ukraine (2009)

National Endowment for the Humanities - Collaborative Research Fellowship to Ukraine (2008)

American Councils for International Education - Postdoctoral Advanced Research Fellowship to Ukraine (2007)

Fulbright - U.S. Student Fulbright Award to Ukraine (2001-2002)

Selected Publications

Helbig, Adriana, Oksana Buranbaeva and Vanja Mladineo. Culture and Customs of Ukraine. Westwood, CT: Greenwood Press. (2009)

“Representation and Intracultural Dynamics: Romani Musicians and Cultural Rights Discourse in Ukraine.” In Music and Cultural Rights. Edited by Andrew Weintraub and Bell Yung, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 269-295. (2009)

“Managing Musical Diversity within Frameworks of Western Development Aid: Views from Ukraine, Georgia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina” Yearbook for Traditional Music 40: 46-59 (2009)

“Ethnomusicology and Advocacy Research: Theory in Action among Romani NGOs in Ukraine.” Anthropology of East Europe Review: Special Issue on Roma and Gadje 25/2: 78-83. (2007)

“The Cyberpolitics of Music in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution.” Current Musicology 82: 81-101. (2006)

“Play For Me, Old Gypsy”: Music as Political Resource in the Roma Rights Movement in Ukraine (PhD Dissertation, Columbia University), (2005)

Selected Papers

“Hip-Hop Events, African Migration, and Corporate Commodification of Racialized Musical Bodies in Ukraine.” International Council for Traditional Music, World Conference, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, July 1-8, 2009.

“‘Yeah, yeah, this is what ya call da real music’: Intercultural Aesthetics in Afro-Ukrainian Hip-Hop.” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, Wesleyan University, October 25-28, 2008.

“Sonic Aesthetics of Poverty Among Romani Musicians in Transcarpathia, Ukraine.” International Council for Traditional Music, Music and Minorities Study Group Meeting, Prague, Czech Republic, May 24-June 1, 2008.

“Drawing the Line Between Political Agendas and Objective Research In Romani Studies.” First Annual Romani Studies Conference, Kyiv, Ukraine April 14-16, 2008.

“‘Make a Hip, Make Me a Hop’: Afro-American Music and Race Identity in Ukraine.” International Association for the Study of Popular Music (U.S.) Annual Conference, University of Iowa, April 25-27, 2008.

“Sampling Blackness: Hip-Hop and Afro-Ukrainian Identity in Kyiv and Kharkiv.” Kennan Institute (covering Russia and surrounding states), Washington DC, February 19, 2008.

“In Culture’s Name: Western Development Aid, Identity Politics, and Post-Socialist Ethnomusicologies.” International Council for Traditional Music, World Conference, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, July 4-11, 2007.

“Broadening the Dialogue Between Regional Ethnomusicologies in Ukraine.” International Symposium in European Ethnomusicology, Cardiff University, April 27-29, 2007.

“Popular Music in the Postsocialist Context.” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies Annual Conference, Washington DC, November 16-19, 2006.

“Dialogics of Development: NGOs, European Integration, and Roma in Ukraine.” Danyliw Research Seminar in Contemporary Ukrainian Studies, Ottawa, October 12-14, 2006.

Performances

Carpathian Music Ensemble, Founder and Director

Student members of the Carpathian Music Ensemble research and perform a wide repertoire of Gypsy, klezmer, Romanian, Ukrainian, Ruthenian, Hungarian, Slovak, and Polish musical traditions, as well as a wide range of Balkan popular songs. The ensemble performs many times throughout the academic year at university events and at public and community venues throughout Pittsburgh. The group hosts a Slavic Dance Party in early December and holds its annual concert in late March.

Activities

University of Pittsburgh Campus Fulbright Interview Committee

PittFilm Travel-to-Collections Grant Committee

Cultural Studies – Music Faculty Liaison

Outreach projects at the Kharkiv Conservatory of Music, Ukraine

American Association of Ukrainian Studies – Secretary/Treasurer (2006- present)

Research Projects

Eastern European Gypsy Contributions to World Music

Hip-Hop Revolution: Music, Migration, and Race Relations in Ukraine

Playing for Peace –Refugee Hip-Hop in Gulu, Uganda