Jade Conlee

Jade Conlee is a Rising Scholars Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in the Music Department at the University of Virginia, specializing in antiracist and anticolonial approaches to American popular music, jazz, and music theory through interdisciplinary engagement with Black studies, Indigenous studies, and environmental humanities.

Her educational background includes:

• Ph.D. and M.A. in Music Studies from Yale University
• M.M. in Piano Performance from the University at Buffalo
• B.M. in Piano Performance from New York University

Conlee's research examines how music and sound mediate relationships to race, place, and the natural world, with current projects analyzing background music's role in U.S. colonial expansion in the Pacific and co-editing "Insurgent Music Theory" to redefine music scholarship's epistemic foundations through decolonial frameworks. Her methodological approach combines archival research, ethnography, and critical theory to contest spatial imaginaries of empire.

Her scholarly recognition includes:

• Fulbright Fellowship

Research support has been provided by Yale University’s Center for Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration. As a classically trained pianist specializing in contemporary repertoire, Conlee integrates performance practice with critical scholarship in her teaching and publications, focusing on dismantling colonial and racist structures within music studies while exploring intersections with ecological thought.