Deborah Justice
Postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in ethnomusicology

Deborah Justice's research interests focus on the phenomenological intersections between individual and social creation of meaning through music, the role of musical experience in creating community, and how practitioners interact with globalizing flows of music and media to transform local traditions over time. Much of her recent ethnographic work has addressed middle-class white communities in the United States, but previous research in Morocco and her current residence in Würzburg, Bavaria have helped to develop a more transnational perspective on currents within evangelical Christian worship. During her postdoctoral year, she will prepare a book manuscript exploring how mainline Protestants have been engaging with the musical dichotomy of guitar-driven “contemporary” against the organ-and-choir-based “traditional” worship style in order to cultivate both spiritual authenticity and broader societal vitality within the United States. B.A., The College of William and Mary; M.A., Wesleyan University; Ph.D., Indiana University.

Updated July 2012