Emily Ruth Allen Interview
Emily Ruth Allen holds a doctorate from Florida State University and completed her Master of Music degree in Historical Musicology at FSU in April 2016. Prior to that, Emily received a Bachelor of Music degree with a concentration in Music with Elected Studies in Specific Outside Fields (mathematics) from the University of South Alabama. Emily’s master’s thesis is about a Florida-based klezmer ensemble called the Holocaust Survivor Band, while her dissertation focused on 19th- and 20th-century Carnival brass bands in Mobile, Alabama. She is currently preparing a book manuscript about parade musics in Mobile’s Mardi Gras history, and also serves as a podcast host on the New Books Network.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
I started my journey to become a musicologist when I did a senior thesis as an undergraduate student at the University of South Alabama (USA). While doing research for it, I thought, “Wow! This is something I’d love to keep doing.” I hadn’t heard much about musicology before that, as there wasn’t a musicologist on faculty at USA. So, pursuing that thesis opened my eyes to the field.
That motivated me to pursue a master’s degree in musicology at Florida State University, where I learned about ethnomusicology for the first time. That was another “lightbulb” moment for me, as my research trajectory completely changed after learning about ethnomusicological methods and theories. Since then I have felt much more “at home” with those approaches.