Felicia Youngblood
PhD in Musicology
Hometown: Winston Salem, NC
Fall 2014 - Fall 2019
Current Job/Occupation
Assistant Professor, Musicology, Western Washington University
Her current work evaluates how music sustainability efforts can be used to reclaim traditionally underrepresented voices, for which she received a Presser Foundation Graduate Music Research Award in 2017. In particular, she collaborates with the Club per l’UNESCO di Galatina to better understand the contributions of women to a centuries-old southern Italian ritual known as tarantism. Dr. Youngblood’s research explores how the Club’s tarantism festival and reenactments highlight the voices and essential roles of these women as cornerstones of Apulian identity. An article on this topic, “On Un-Silencing Voices: Tarantismo and the Gendered Heritage of Apulia,” was published in the journal Folk Life in March 2019.
Educational/Professional Background
Felicia K. Youngblood received her PhD in Musicology from Florida State University in 2019, where she was a member of the Fellows Society, a Krebs Scholar, and a graduate assistant with the Program for Instructional Excellence.
Dr. Youngblood is a co-founder and the current chair of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Disability and Deaf Studies Group and an active member of the Applied Ethnomusicology section, Section on the Status of Women, and the Gender and Sexualities Taskforce. Her other research interests include music and health, women’s US community choirs, witchcraft and Pagan soundscapes, and disability and Deaf studies. As a performer, she identifies primarily as a vocalist and a dancer. Her experience is in diverse genres such as musical theatre, rock and roll, West African drum and dance, Italian folk, Middle Eastern belly dance, eighteenth-century Western art song, traditional Irish singing and step, and Caribbean salsa. Some of her more notable performances have been with funk artist George Clinton, composer and conductor Eric Whitacre, and with multiple award-winning world music artists, such as Haiqiong Deng (Chinese guzheng) and Diadie Bathily (West African dance). In her spare time, Dr. Youngblood enjoys singing and dancing, yoga, reading fantasy novels, playing board games, and organizing social events. She looks forward to continuing her work as an instructor, a researcher, and a vocalist in the coming years.
For my doctoral research, I study gender, heritage, and the voice in the reenactments of a music and dance-based healing ritual in Southern Italy. I enjoy the experience that I've gained teaching a variety of courses in the College of Music at FSU. My favorite of these experiences is making my research accessible to my students so that we can have informed and critical classroom debates about something that is much more tangible to them than what they generally read in textbooks.
Connecting with students, faculty, staff, and community members is the biggest highlight of my experience as a graduate student at FSU. I have learned both from my coursework and the interactions that have taken place with those surrounding me and I am grateful that the university provides this space for learning, listening, interacting, and giving back.
MM - Ethnomusicology, The Florida State University
BA - Music Education, Catawba College
Unique Awards/Achievements
I am grateful to have received the Presser Graduate Music Award, which allowed me to conduct fieldwork in Italy for two months during Summer 2017. I have also received funding directly from FSU's Musicology Area, which allowed me to establish my research project in Summer 2016. It is because of these opportunities that I have had the privilege to create international connections with scholars, musicians, politicians, and community members that are dedicated to sustaining their local music traditions.
Experience as A Member of The Fellows Society
FSU's Fellows Society has connected me with people from diverse backgrounds and facilitated a space for us to interact about our passions and reasons for studying specific subjects. Further, it has provided me with valuable skills in making my research more accessible to those outside of my discipline and academia, in general.
Future Plans/Aspirations
I plan to teach and continue field research as a college or university professor.