Elaine Kathryn Andres is an educator, strategist, and interdisciplinary researcher.

My research, teaching, and life interests span popular music and performance studies, feminist cultural studies, comparative ethnic studies, Asian American studies, and popular cultures of U.S. empire. My book-in-progress, Going Places: Afro Filipino Intimacies and the Political Economies of U.S. Popular Music examines a cross-section of touring musicians that generate a set of historical and contemporary Afro Filipino intimacies that decenter the Black-white color line that governs the management and production of difference through popular music. Drawing on popular music studies, cultural geography, and political economy, this work posits a performative mode of listening that brings into relief the scales and textures of empire’s governance (from the home to the city, to the hemisphere) and the connections between music, place, mobility, and racialization.

I have presented my research and facilitated workshops and roundtables at annual conferences of the American Studies Association and the Association for Asian American Studies, “Music of Asian America: History, Activism, and Collaborations” — a convening co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival and the Music of Asian America Research Center, and at the Pop Conference — the longest running music writing and pop music studies conference. I have also delivered guest lectures and invited talks at University of California Irvine, University of Minnesota, and Spelman College.

I completed my Ph.D. in Culture & Theory with designated emphases in gender and sexuality studies, Asian American studies, and visual studies at the University of California, Irvine. I earned my B.A. in Rhetoric with Honors at the University of California, Berkeley. I am currently an American Council of Learned Societies Leading Edge Fellow, leading learning and evaluation efforts at Destiny Arts Center in Oakland, California. Outside of my fellowship, I teach classes in the Department of Ethnic Studies at Cal State University East Bay.

In my consulting practice, I draw on my experiences across higher education, policy advocacy, and grassroots organizations to support leftist and progressive leaders, teams, organizations, and coalitions building power for working-class communities of color.

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