Dr. Sonia Tamar Seeman is an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology in the Butler School of Music’s musicology and ethnomusicology division and holds active affiliations with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Center for Women and Gender Studies, and the Center for Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies. She serves as the UT-Butler School of Music’s Bachelor of Arts Program Coordinator and UT’s Fulbright Program Advisor and Chair.
Prof. Seeman’s research focuses on the music of the Middle East and Southeastern Europe and has been working with Romani professional musicians since the mid-1980s. Prof. Seeman’s ongoing field research in Macedonia and Turkey focuses on the crucial role of Romani musicians and other minorities. She has published several articles, liner notes, and co-produced Turkish Romani music cd with Selim Sesler, “Roads to Keşan”.
Prof. Seeman’s monograph, “Sounding Roman: Representation and Performing Identity in Western Turkey” was published by Oxford University Press, 2019. She is passionately committed to diversity, serving on UT’s Fine Arts Diversity Committee, Council for Racial Ethnic Equity and Diversity, and teaching courses on music and social identity (Music and Gender; Music, Identity and Difference; Music and Culture; Romani music and representation; Music of the Middle East).
Prof. Seeman is the founder and director of UT’s Middle Eastern Ensemble, “Bereket” which brings together students, faculty, staff, and community members in studying and performing regional, court, religious, and popular music from these regions and their diasporic communities. Prof. Seeman is appointed as a Chair of the Advisory Board and Research Council at the New York Institute for the Humanities and Social Studies, and with other research staff, she is an essential part of the core structure of this institution.
