معرفی
Karin Bindu serves as a Lecturer in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology within the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Vienna. An active cultural anthropologist and percussionist since 1991, she integrates fieldwork from Trinidad and India into both academic instruction and musical performance, specializing in cross-cultural rhythm studies across South Asia, the Caribbean, and West Africa.
Her educational foundation includes a Mag. Dr.phil. degree with dissertation Percussion Art Forms: Aspects of the Production and Communication of Southindian Talas in the Kutiyattam (LIT Verlag, 2013), establishing her expertise in South Indian percussion systems. This academic trajectory bridges rigorous scholarly research with practical musical mastery.
Dr. Bindu's research program centers on Music Ethnology of India, Indian Diaspora communities in the Caribbean, and Anthropology of Rhythm, with specialized investigations into healing contexts, performing arts, Trinidadian Orisha religion, Afghan refugee music, and women's drumming practices. Her work uniquely combines art-based research methodologies with anthropological theory to examine rhythm as cultural knowledge.
Publication trends (2013-2019) reveal sustained focus on Mizhavu percussion within Kerala's Kutiyattam tradition, expanding to diaspora communities through Trinidadian and Afghan migration studies. She consistently explores rhythmic systems' spiritual dimensions, intercultural transmission mechanisms, and cognitive aspects of tala structures across diverse cultural contexts.
As a performing artist, she collaborates with the female ensemble 'Weltenmusik Trio' and various music groups while maintaining active membership in the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTMÖ), demonstrating seamless integration of academic scholarship and artistic practice within global music networks.
