Jessica Swanston Baker

Jessica Swanston Baker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Music and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Chicago. She specializes in contemporary popular music of the Circum-Caribbean, focusing on tempo perception, colonial legacies, and intersections of race and gender.

• PhD in Ethnomusicology, University of Pennsylvania (2015)
• BM in Vocal Performance, Bucknell University (2009)

Her research explores:

• Tempo and aesthetics in Caribbean music
• Coloniality and decolonization frameworks
• Race/gender and respectability politics
• Caribbean sovereignty and representation

Her publications analyze:

• Archipelagic listening practices
• Music tourism in St. Kitts and Nevis
• Area code symbolism in sonic identities

Jessica's work bridges historical analysis and ethnography to examine how colonial histories shape contemporary music reception.