Ruth Meadows

Ruth Meadows is an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology in the University of Nevada, Reno's School of Music and a Faculty Affiliate of the Gender, Race, and Identity (GRI) Department. She holds a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Pennsylvania (2017) and a B.A. in Latin American Studies and Spanish from Tulane University (2005).

Her research explores global circulations of music in Hispanophone and circum-Caribbean contexts, with emphases on gender studies, ritual music, jazz, and ecology. Notable work includes her award-winning 2021 article on women and batá percussion in Cuba, which won the SEM Jaap Kunst Prize, and her 2023 book *Efficacy of Sound*, analyzing translocal ritual music in Cuban Ifá-Òrìṣà traditions. Current projects examine Cuban women in jazz fusion and queer ecological artivism.

Meadows has held roles such as Resident Director for the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Global program in Havana (2012–2015) and a research affiliation with Cuba's Juan Marinello Institute (2014–2016). In 2025, she was awarded the Roberto C. Goizueta Distinguished Presidential Fellowship at the University of Miami, supporting her Cuban diaspora research.