Abbas Jaffer
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Abbas Jaffer’s doctoral research is a comprehensive ethnography of Pakistani contemporary music, gender, and technology. Instead of looking at them only as a bulwark against extremism, he is researching how musicians interface with digital technologies and the political economy of the music industry in Pakistan. Rather than broad assumptions about internet-engaged youth in Pakistan, he is examining what ideas of national identity and class are present as musicians take to digital platforms. And as opposed to seeing internet media primarily through a literary or semiotic lens, he is interested in how the material and spatial interaction between musicians, digital networks, and audiences enact elite masculine ideals of success.
Abbas Jaffer’s doctoral research is a comprehensive ethnography of Pakistani contemporary music, gender, and technology. Instead of looking at them only as a bulwark against extremism, he is researching how musicians interface with digital technologies and the political economy of the music industry in Pakistan. Rather than broad assumptions about internet-engaged youth in Pakistan, he is examining what ideas of national identity and class are present as musicians take to digital platforms. And as opposed to seeing internet media primarily through a literary or semiotic lens, he is interested in how the material and spatial interaction between musicians, digital networks, and audiences enact elite masculine ideals of success.
