Vincent Kelley is a Ph.D. Candidate in Ethnomusicology with interests in South Asian music, jazz and Afro-American music, religion, social theory, and the history of ethnomusicology.
In 2016, Vincent received a B.A. in Religious Studies from Grinnell College and was a Fulbright researcher in India in 2016-17. He completed a M.Mus. in Musicology and Ethnomusicology from King’s College London in 2019. Vincent’s research on the historical, aesthetic, and social relationships among the tabla, naqqara (kettle drum), and kathak dance in North India will be published in Asian Music (forthcoming, July 2024). In 2023-24, he is on a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship to conduct his Ph.D. dissertation research on jazz in late twentieth-century India.
Vincent has performed on drum set and tabla in jazz, Hindustani, and popular music settings in the United States and India. He also has a strong interest in Hindi, Urdu, and Persian language and literature and has received American Institute of Indian Studies and Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships for Urdu and Persian language study.