Bonnie McConnell

Bon­nie McConnell is a PhD can­di­date in eth­no­mu­si­col­ogy at the Uni­ver­sity of Wash­ing­ton. Her dis­ser­ta­tion focuses on music and health in The Gam­bia, bring­ing together per­spec­tives from med­ical eth­no­mu­si­col­ogy, global health and devel­op­ment, and per­for­mance the­ory. She has received awards from the Fulbright-Hays Pro­gram (2012–2013), the Uni­ver­sity of Wash­ing­ton Chester Fritz Endow­ment (2010), and the For­eign Lan­guage and Area Stud­ies (FLAS) Pro­gram for her research in Africa. In addi­tion to her back­ground in music edu­ca­tion and eth­no­mu­si­col­ogy, her research is informed by four years work­ing as a health edu­ca­tor in Tan­za­nia and The Gam­bia. Bon­nie com­pleted the Uni­ver­sity of Washington’s Grad­u­ate Cer­tifi­cate in Pub­lic Health in 2011 with a focus onHIV/AIDS com­mu­ni­ca­tion in Sene­gal. She has taught courses on pop­u­lar music at the Uni­ver­sity of Wash­ing­ton and worked for two years in the Eth­no­mu­si­col­ogy Archive. Bon­nie has per­for­mance expe­ri­ence in the areas of Senegam­bian Mandinka music, the Dagarti gyil xylo­phone from Ghana, Wag­ogo music from Tan­za­nia, and Venda music from South Africa. She has also per­formed as key­boardist with a Gam­bian dance band ded­i­cated to health edu­ca­tion through per­for­mance. She has con­ducted research on music in The Gam­bia, Sene­gal, Tan­za­nia, Sene­gal, Ghana, Canada and the United States.