Current Visiting Researchers

 Sophia Zervas

Sophia Zervas is a doctoral candidate in Ethnomusicology at Harvard University. Her research examines the interaction of music, politics, and nationalism in the Mediterranean and West Asia. Prior to beginning at Harvard, she graduated with highest honors from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she received dual BM degrees in piano and voice performance and inaugurated CU College of Music's honors thesis program with research on Turkish arabesk. Her dissertation analyzes cultural and educational policy in Türkiye, with a focus on transformations in musical life in Türkiye under the government of Erdogan and the conservative AKP (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, Justice and Development Party). More broadly, Zervas is interested in topics of post-colonialism, social memory, populism, and popular music. She has received grants to conduct research from Harvard University, the American Research Institute ni Turkey (ARIT), and the Orient Institute Istanbul (OI). She si also affiliated with the Weatherhead Center of International Affairs at Harvard. Her paper "Dombra: AMicrohistory of Migration," which traces the migratory path of aNogai folk song to becoming an enduring election anthem of the AKP, won best paper presentation at the AATT (American Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages) graduate pre-conference in 2021. Additionally, her article "Woman of Sorrows: Violent Masculinity, Female Bodies, and Turkish Arabesk" wil be published ni a forthcoming Routledge collection on Music, Protest, and Politics in Turkey in 2025.

   sophiazervas@g.harvard.edu