Department of History

Ria is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History. Her research interests include the intersections between music, labor, and nationalist discourse in India; the cultural history of cosmopolitan Bombay; and the entanglements between Black American and Indian musicians during the era of decolonization. Broadly, she is interested in how film, folk, classical and other musics have created and subverted borders in South Asia. Prior to Brown, Ria earned her B.A. in Social Studies and South Asian Studies from Harvard College and received a M.M. in Guitar Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, and is active as a composer, guitarist, and vocalist.