Dr. Rastko Jakovljevic is a cultural and music anthropologist who earned his Ph.D. at Durham University in the United Kingdom, one of the world’s top-ranked institutions for arts and humanities, and among the three oldest universities in England after Oxford and Cambridge. Having been led by most renowned scholars in the field, Dr. Jakovljevic’s research was shaped by Durham University tradition tied particularly to anthropology and cultural studies, providing a rigorous intellectual environment for his doctoral dissertation Marginality and Cultural Identities: The Localization of Bagpipe Music in Serbia (2012), carried out with the support of H.R.H. Princess Jelisaveta Karageorgevic. His research focuses on Balkan music, the anthropology of music, critical theory, cultural studies, popular music, and applied ethnomusicology.
He was elected Research Associate at the Institute of Musicology of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA) in Belgrade. Over his career, he has published more than 50 scholarly works, reviews, and critical essays in international journals, edited volumes, textbooks, and media outlets, and has presented widely across Europe and North America.
As principal investigator, Dr. Jakovljević has directed significant digitization and sound-archiving projects in Belgrade (Serbia), collaborating with leading institutions such as the Bartók Archive of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, IASA, and the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv, working on rare sound collections and advancing archival media research. Completing these critical projects significantly strengthened Serbia’s visibility in global professional networks and salvaged precious historical recordings.
For the Republic of Serbia, he coordinated one of the inscriptions into the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage programs and initiatives, establishing new frameworks for national nomination and safeguarding practices while supporting endangered music traditions.
In 2015, Dr. Jakovljevic joined the University of Texas at Austin, a leading U.S. research university, where he taught undergraduate and graduate ethnomusicology courses. For his academic contributions, he received the highly competitive Harrington Fellowship, the university’s most prestigious award for scholars, given to exceptional researchers whose work demonstrates international impact. He chaired committees, mentored graduate students, and actively engaged in human rights and cultural advocacy campaigns.
Since 2020, Dr. Jakovljevic has been serving as Director of the New York Institute for Humanities and Social Studies (NYIHSS). Under his leadership, in the role of Principal Investigator, NYIHSS has launched groundbreaking, broad-spectrum short-term and long-term projects, including:
· Artificial Intelligence, Global Equity and Mobility (initiated for 2026-2027), creating a research platform for the analysis of current challenges within humanities and social studies;
· Gender, Crisis, and Social Challenges and Music, Migration, and Memory (two research project cycles in 2021-2023), a transnational study of immigrant musical practices in New York City;
· Displacement, Identities, and Social Change (2020-2025), an interdisciplinary program on cultural sustainability and digital repatriation in partnership with European and U.S. institutions.
Dr. Jakovljevic remains an active member of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), serving as Co-Chair of its Study Group on Musical Instruments for over a decade, and of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), where he was elected to the Ethics Committee in 2020. He also participates in the Royal Musical Association (RMA) and the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE). In addition, he has served as President of Jeunesses Musicales Serbia, as a jury member at international festivals such as the Guca Trumpet Festival, and as a collaborator on numerous international research initiatives.
In recognition of his combined scholarship, public service, and cultural advocacy, Dr. Jakovljevic received the Presidential Award presented in the name of President Joseph R. Biden in 2024.
