Galeet
Dardashti

Jewish Theological Seminary

Bio

Galeet Dardashti is both anthropologist and renowned vocalist/composer. Her publications examine Israeli music/media, Mizrahi cultural politics, and the political economy of philanthropy; she is currently completing a book on the Mizrahi piyyut (sacred song) phenomenon in Israel. Dardashti has held postdoctoral fellowships at NYU and Rutgers and most recently was Assistant Professor of Jewish Music/Musician in Residence at JTS. For spring 2021, she is the Artist-in-Virtual-Residence at Indiana University’s Jewish Studies program. Her research at the Katz Center examines a nascent movement of young liberal “Mizrahi” North American Jews. As founder/leader of the all-woman ensemble Divahn, and through her multi-disciplinary commissions The Naming and Monajat, Dardashti has also earned a reputation as a trail-blazing performer of Middle Eastern Jewish music.

Selected publications

  • “Televised Agendas: How Global Funders Make Israeli Television More Jewish,” Jewish Film and New Media: An International Journal (2015)
  • “‘Music of Peace’ at a Time of War: Middle Eastern Music Amidst the Second Intifada,” in Narratives of Dissent: War in Contemporary Israeli Arts and Culture, ed. Ranan Omer Sherman and Rachel S. Harris (Wayne State University Press, 2013)
  • “The Buena Vista Baghdad Club: Negotiating Local, National, and Global Representations of Jewish Iraqi Musicians in Israel,” in Jewish Topographies: Visions of Space—Traditions of Place, ed. Anna Lipphardt and Alexandra Nocke (Ashgate Publishing, 2008)

Fellowship

2020–2021

Delving into some of the most pressing debates within US history and Jewish history, and examining vital questions shaping Jewish cultural studies, literary theory, and social scientific inquiry