Pitt Ethnomusicology PhD student Hannah Standiford has been awarded a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship. The fellowship will support fieldwork in Surakarta, Java, Indonesia from October 10, 2022–July 10, 2023. Hannah says about her research,

"During field site visits to Java starting in 2014, I found that the performance of a repertoire of Javanese vocal music called langgam Jawa (lit. “Javanese style”) evokes a sense of nostalgia or longing (kerinduan) among Javanese musicians and listeners. Performances of nostalgia in langgam Jawa, however, do not languish in the past but are socially operative, affording musicians and listeners a means of expressing and reifying a sense of belonging as ethnic Javanese in the present. Further, although men typically occupy important roles as instrumentalists and media producers, women’s voices are pivotal in cultivating feelings of longing among listeners. My dissertation, the first to focus on this repertoire, will address the following questions: (1) how did langgam Jawa become a potent site for invoking meanings about nostalgia among Javanese musicians and listeners?; (2) what is the nature of nostalgia in the performance and listening practices of langgam Jawa in contemporary Javanese society?; and (3) how did Javanese women become privileged actors in vocalizing the past through langgam Jawa?"

Hannah co-founded Rumput, a group that plays the style of music she is studying, with Dr. Andy Mcgraw in 2015. See Rumput performing in this remote collaboration with composer Danis Sugiyanto and visual artist Dani Iswardana.