معرفی
Alexandra Birch is a Mellon Teaching Fellow at the Harriman Institute and Lecturer in History at Columbia University. She is a dual professional as a violinist and historian, specializing in comparative studies of Nazi and Soviet atrocities through the lens of music and sound. Her work focuses on the Holocaust, Gulag, and the intersection of soundscapes with historical violence.
Education:
- PhD in History (University of California Santa Barbara)
- BM, MM, DMA in Violin Performance (Arizona State University)
Research Interests: Dr. Birch examines how music and sound shaped experiences of atrocity in Nazi and Soviet contexts. Her first book Hitler’s Twilight of the Gods analyzes musical orchestration of war and genocide. Her current project, Sonic Shatterzones, explores eight case studies including indigenous interactions with Solovki, Weinberg’s compositions in Tashkent, and post-Soviet sound recordings to humanize historical violence.
Awards:
- Jordan Schnitzer First Book Publication Award
Grants & Fellowships: She held fellowships at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Wilson Center, and Vienna Wiesenthal Institute, producing CDs of recovered music. She also oversees new recordings of Gulag-era compositions and sound archives.
Labs/Teams: Collaborates with musicologists, historians, and sound archivists on interdisciplinary projects linking performance studies to atrocity research.
