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Dr Miranda Crowdus

Assistant Professor, Religions and Cultures


Dr Miranda Crowdus
David Ward

Miranda Crowdus is an assistant professor at the Department of Religions and Cultures. She directs the Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies and holds the Research Chair in Canadian Jewish Studies. Crowdus’ research interests lie at the intersection of ethnomusicology and Jewish Studies. She earned her doctorate at City University London in 2016 that focused on intercultural encounters in grassroots music-making initiatives in South Tel Aviv, Israel. Prior to her move to Canada, she spent five years in Hanover, Germany, as a research associate at the European Centre for Jewish Music under the directorship of Professor Sarah Ross where she conducted research, assisted with programming, curriculum development and community outreach. She is currently working with Dr. Sacha Kagan (University of Hildesheim) on re-ontologizing concepts of Jewish cultural heritage and cultural sustainability through a Canadian and transnational lens in her DFG-funded project "Queering Jewish Cultural Heritage in Europe: Jewish Transformations Through Reparative Response and Creative Encounter." The project operates under the auspices of the Jewish Cultural Heritage Priority Program (DFG):

 SPP Jüdisches Kulturerbe (spp-juedisches-kulturerbe.de)

Miranda Crowdus est professeure adjointe au Département des religions et des cultures de l'Université Concordia. Elle dirige également l'Institut d'études juives canadiennes et elle est titulaire de la chaire de recherche en études juives canadiennes. Ses intérêts de recherche se situent à l'intersection de l'ethnomusicologie et des études juives. Elle a obtenu son doctorat à la City University de Londres en 2016, axé sur les rencontres interculturelles dans le cadre d'initiatives musicales populaires dans le sud de Tel-Aviv, en Israël. Avant de (re)déménager au Canada, elle a passé cinq ans à Hanovre, en Allemagne, en tant qu'associée de recherche au Centre européen de musique juive sous la direction du professeur Sarah Ross où elle amené des recherches, aidé à la programmation, à l'élaboration de programmes età la sensibilisation communautaire. Elle travaille actuellement avec Dr Sacha Kagan (Université de Hildesheim) sur la réontologisation des concepts du patrimoine culturel juif et de la durabilité culturelle dans le cadre de son projet financé par la DFG « Queering Jewish Cultural Heritage in Europe: Jewish Transformations Through Reparative Response and Creative Encounter » sous les auspices du programme prioritaire du patrimoine culturel juif:

 SPP Jüdisches Kulturerbe (spp-juedisches-kulturerbe.de)


Teaching activities

Courses

Undergraduate:

RELI 220 Introduction to Judaism
RELI 398 Hip-Hop and Urban Youth Cultures

Graduate:

RELI 6017 Nations in Conversations? Jewish and Indigenous Voices in Canada
RELI 6017 Music and Religious Expression


Publications

Publications

Monographs

Crowdus, M. 2018. Hip Hop in Urban Borderlands: Music-Making and Intercultural Dynamics on the Margins of the Jewish State. Bern: Peter Lang.

Dissertation

Crowdus, M. 2016. ‘Hip Hop in South Tel Aviv: Third-Space, Convergent Dispossession(s), and Intercultural Communication in Urban Borderlands’. PhD Thesis, City University London, Open Access.

Co-authored Books

Crowdus, M., Randhofer, R.,Ross, S. 2020. Jüdisches KulturerbeMUSIK -Divergenzen und Zeitlichkeit. Überlegungen zu einer Kulturellen Nachhaltigkeit aus Sicht der Jüdischen MusikstudienSarah Ross (ed.) 
Bern:Peter Lang. 

Book Chapters

Crowdus, M. 2021. ‘Remembering the Destruction, Re-animating the Collective: Romaniote Liturgical Music after the Holocaust’, in The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Music, Tina Frühauf (ed.), New York: Oxford University Press.

Crowdus, M. 2021. ‘Collective Memory in Jewish Popular Music: (Re)constructions across Generations’, in We Will Live After Babylon: Armenian and Jewish Historical Experience between Expulsion, Exile and Destruction, Regina Randhofer, Sarah Ross (eds.) Oldenburg: Walter de Gruyter.

Crowdus, M. 2020. with Ross, Sarah. ‘Applied Ethnomusicology and Jewish Music Studies: Negotiating “Third Mission” Requests in Germany Today’, in Diggin' Up Music: Musikethnologie als BaustelleMichael Führ, Kersten Klenke, Julio Mendivil (eds.) Hildesheim: Olms Verlag, pp.104-127

Crowdus, M. 2020. ‘Blackness, Mizrahi Identity and Ethnic Shifting in Contemporary Israeli Popular Music’ in Selected Racial Boundaries: The Social Life of Blackness in Israel. Uri Dorchin, Gabriella Djerrahian (eds). Albany, NY:SUNY Press.

 

Crowdus, M. 2015.“Deviance, Polyvalence and Musical ‘Third Space’: Negotiating Boundaries of Jewishness at Palestinian Hip Hop Performances” in Boundaries, Identity and Belonging in Modern Judaism. M. Diemling and L. Ray (Eds.): Routledge. 

 

Peer-Reviewed Articles

 

Crowdus, M. 2020. ‘Jewish Women and Israeli Music’ in The Shalvi-Hyman Encyclopedia
of Jewish Women
. (2020 Edition; multiple eds.)
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia

Crowdus, M. 2019. ‘Rescuing a Nearly-Lost Liturgical Tradition: Synagogue Music of the Romaniote Jews in Greece’. The Journal of Synagogue Music, Joseph Levine (ed.) March 2019.

Crowdus, M. 2018. ‘Women’s Rosh Chodesh Services in Orthodox Judaism: Music, Gender, and Power-Negotiations on the Periphery’. Bet-Debora Conference Proceedings. Creating Alternative for Jewish Women in Europe. Breslau, Poland. 2016.

Crowdus, M. 2017. “Redefining the Music-Object in the Synagogue: Ethics and Dissonances in the Museum Display of Jewish Musical Practices”. Publication of the Third International Congress on Jewish Architecture “Synagogue and Museum”, Kathrine Kessler, Ulrich Knufinke (eds.). Braunschweig, Germany.

Book Reviews:

Crowdus, M. 2016. “Review of Jewish Contiguities and the Soundtrack of Israeli History.” Jewish Culture and History: Routledge.

Crowdus, M. 2014. “Review of Ethnographic Encounters in Israel: Poetics and Ethics of Fieldwork.” Jewish Culture and History: Routledge. 

Other Publications:

Crowdus, M. 2019. ‘Cantor Haim Ischakis: Synagogue Music of the Romaniote Jews of Greece’ CD Liner notes: EZJM Ethnographic Fieldwork Recordings Series.

Crowdus, M. 2020. ‘From Mumbai to Sydney: Oral Traditions of Synagogue Chant in the Jewish-Babylonian Diaspora’ CD Liner notes: EZJM Ethnographic Fieldwork Recordings Series.

 

 


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