Chérie Rivers Ndaliko

Chérie Rivers Ndaliko is an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-director of the Yole!Africa Cultural Center in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Her work bridges ethnomusicology, African studies, and film studies through critical analyses of arts interventions in conflict zones.

• Education: BM in filmscoring (Berklee College of Music), MA in Ethnomusicology (Harvard University), PhD in African Studies (Harvard University)
• Research: Focuses on radical arts interventions in the DRC, particularly the role of music and film in humanitarian initiatives, cultural activism, and critiques of charitable imperialism.
• Awards: Recognized with the 2017 Alan Merriam Prize and 2018 Kwabena Nketia Book Award for her monograph Necessary Noise: Music, Film, and Charitable Imperialism in the East of Congo (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Her scholarship challenges dominant narratives of DRC’s conflict, emphasizing the necessity of arts and culture for sustainable peace and socially engaged citizenship.