About Emily Ruth Allen

Emily Ruth Allen (@emmyru91) holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Florida State University. Her current research is about parade musics in Mobile, Alabama’s Carnival.

NBN Episodes hosted by Emily:

Horace J. Maxile, Jr. and Kristen M. Turner, "Race and Gender in the Western Music History Survey: A Teacher's Guide" (Routledge, 2022)

February 27, 2024

Race and Gender in the Western Music History Survey

Horace J. Maxile, Jr. and Kristen M. Turner
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Race and Gender in the Western Music History Survey: A Teacher’s Guide provides concrete information and approaches that will help instructors include…

Christopher M. Reali, "Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals" (U Illinois Press, 2022)

August 12, 2022

Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals

Christopher M. Reali
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

The forceful music that rolled out of Muscle Shoals in the 1960s and 1970s shaped hits by everyone from Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to the Roll…

John M. Shaw, "Following the Drums: African American Fife and Drum Music in Tennessee" (UP of Mississippi, 2022)

August 1, 2022

Following the Drums

John M. Shaw
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Following the Drums: African American Fife and Drum Music in Tennessee (University Press of Mississippi, 2022) is an epic history of a little-known A…

Doug MacCash, "Mardi Gras Beads" (Louisiana UP, 2022)

April 26, 2022

Mardi Gras Beads

Doug MacCash
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

The first in a new LSU Press series exploring facets of Louisiana’s iconic culture, Mardi Gras Beads (2022) delves into the history of this celebrated…

Tim Smolko and Joanna Smolko, "Atomic Tunes: The Cold War in American and British Popular Music" (Indiana UP, 2021)

March 11, 2022

Atomic Tunes

Tim Smolko and Joanna Smolko
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

During the Cold War, over 500 songs were written about nuclear weapons, fear of the Soviet Union, civil defense, bomb shelters, McCarthyism, uranium m…

Carol J. Oja and Charles Garrett, "Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U. S. Music in the 21st Century" (U Michigan Press, 2021)

January 7, 2022

Sounding Together

Carol J. Oja and Charles Garrett
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Edited by Charles Hiroshi Garrett and Carol J. Oja, Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U.S. Music in the Twenty-21st Century (University…

Rosa Hawkins and Steve Bergsman, "Chapel of Love: The Story of New Orleans Girl Group the Dixie Cups" (UP of Mississippi, 2021)

January 5, 2022

Chapel of Love

Rosa Hawkins and Steve Bergsman
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

In 1963, sisters Barbara Ann and Rosa Hawkins and their cousin Joan Marie Johnson traveled from the segregated South to New York City under the auspic…

Aaron Cometbus and Scott Satterwhite, "A Punkhouse in the Deep South: The Oral History Of 309" (UP of Florida, 2021)

October 18, 2021

A Punkhouse in the Deep South

Aaron Cometbus and Scott Satterwhite
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Told in personal interviews, A Punkhouse in the Deep South: The Oral History of 309 (University Press of Florida, 2021) is the collective story of a p…

Panayotis F. League, "Echoes of the Great Catastrophe: Re-Sounding Anatolian Greekness in Diaspora" (U Michigan Press, 2021)

October 4, 2021

Echoes of the Great Catastrophe

Panayotis F. League
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Echoes of the Great Catastrophe: Re-sounding Anatolian Greekness in Diaspora (University of Michigan Press, 2021) explores the legacy of the Great Cat…

Jan Bardsley, "Maiko Masquerade: Crafting Geisha Girlhood in Japan" (U California Press, 2021)

September 6, 2021

Maiko Masquerade

Jan Bardsley
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Maiko Masquerade: Crafting Geisha Girlhood in Japan (University of California Press, 2021) explores Japanese representations of the maiko, or apprenti…

Jill P. Ingram, "Festive Enterprise: The Business of Drama in Medieval and Renaissance England" (U Notre Dame Press, 2021)

August 6, 2021

Festive Enterprise

Jill P. Ingram
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

In Festive Enterprise: The Business of Drama in Medieval and Renaissance England (University of Notre Dame Press, 2021), Dr. Jill Ingram merges the hi…

Mark A. Johnson, "Rough Tactics: Black Performance in Political Spectacles, 1877-1932" (UP of Mississippi, 2021)

August 5, 2021

Rough Tactics

Mark A. Johnson
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

During the nadir of race relations in the United States South from 1877 to 1932, African Americans faced segregation, disfranchisement, and lynching. …

Candace Bailey, "Unbinding Gentility: Women Making Music in the Nineteenth-Century South" (U Illinois Press, 2021)

July 13, 2021

Unbinding Gentility

Candace Bailey
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Southern women of all classes, races, and walks of life practiced music during and after the Civil War. Dr. Candace Bailey examines the history of sou…

Alessandro Testa, "Rituality and Social (Dis)Order: The Historical Anthropology of Popular Carnival in Europe" (Routledge, 2020)

June 25, 2021

Rituality and Social (Dis)Order

Alessandro Testa
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Rituality and Social (Dis)Order: The Historical Anthropology of Popular Carnival in Europe (Routledge, 2020) is the first comparative historical anthr…

Cécile Fromont, "Afro-Catholic Festivals in the Americas: Performance, Representation, and the Making of Black Atlantic Tradition" (Pennsylvania State UP, 2019)

June 9, 2021

Afro-Catholic Festivals in the Americas

Cécile Fromont
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Edited by Dr. Cécile Fromont, Afro-Catholic Festivals in the Americas: Performance, Representation, and the Making of Black Atlantic Tradition (Penn S…

Katrina Phillips, "Staging Indigeneity: Salvage Tourism and the Performance of Native American History" (UNC Press, 2021)

May 21, 2021

Staging Indigeneity

Katrina Phillips
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

As tourists increasingly moved across the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a surprising number of communities looke…

Philip Auslander, "In Concert: Performing Musical Persona" (U Michigan Press, 2021)

April 30, 2021

In Concert

Philip Auslander
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Throughout In Concert: Performing Musical Persona (University of Michigan Press, 2021), Dr. Philip Auslander addresses not only the visual means by wh…

Regina N. Bradley, "Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South" (UNC Press, 2021)

April 19, 2021

Chronicling Stankonia

Regina N. Bradley
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South (University of North Carolina Press, 2021) pulses with the beats of a new American South, probing…

Amanda Ann Klein, "Millennials Killed the Video Star: MTV's Transition to Reality Programming" (Duke UP, 2021)

April 5, 2021

Millennials Killed the Video Star

Amanda Ann Klein
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

In Millennials Killed the Video Star: MTV’s Transition to Reality Programming (Duke University Press, 2021), Dr. Amanda Ann Klein examines the histori…

Njoroge M. Njoroge, "Chocolate Surrealism: Music, Movement, Memory, and History in the Circum-Caribbean" (UP of Mississippi, 2016)

March 11, 2021

Chocolate Surrealism

Njoroge M. Njoroge
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

In Chocolate Surrealism: Music, Movement, Memory, and History in the Circum-Caribbean (University Press of Mississippi, 2016), Dr. Njoroge M. Njoroge …

N. M. Leite, Q. E. Castañeda, K. Adams, "The Ethnography of Tourism: Edward Bruner and Beyond" (Lexington, 2019)

February 10, 2021

The Ethnography of Tourism

Naomi M. Leite, Quetzil E. Castañeda, Kathleen Adams
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Edited by Naomi M. Leite, Quetzil E. Castañeda, and Kathleen M. Adams, The Ethnography of Tourism: Edward Bruner and Beyond (Lexington Books, 2019) fo…

Ray Allen, "Jump Up!: Caribbean Carnival Music in New York City" (Oxford UP, 2019)

February 9, 2021

Jump Up!

Ray Allen
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Jump Up!: Caribbean Carnival Music in New York City (Oxford University Press, 2019) is a comprehensive history of Trinidadian calypso and steelband mu…

M. C. Riggio et al, "Festive Devils of the Americas" (Seagull Books, 2015)

February 4, 2021

Festive Devils of the Americas

Milla Cozart Riggio, Angela Marino, and Paolo Vignolo
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

The devil is a defiant, nefarious figure, the emblem of evil, and harbinger of the damned. However, the festive devil—the devil that dances—turns the …

Jason Berry, "City of a Million Dreams: A History of New Orleans at Year 300" (UNC Press, 2018)

January 19, 2021

City of a Million Dreams

Jason Berry
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

In City of a Million Dreams: A History of New Orleans at Year 300 (University of North Carolina Press, 2018), Jason Berry delivers a history of New Or…