Ellen Hebden

Dr. Ellen Hebden (she/her/hers) completed a Joint Ph.D. in Cultural anthropology and Ethnomusicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2021, and has an M.Mus. in Ethnomusicology from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (2008). At UNL she teaches courses on ethnomusicology, music, gender and sexuality, music and labor, and music research methods. Previously, she has held visiting positions at Kenyon College, Eastern Illinois University and Beloit College.

Dr. Hebden’s research examines the intersections of music and dance performance, gender and sexuality, and mobility politics. Her dissertation, “Aesthetics of Femininity, Competitive Dance, and the Gendered Politics of Mobility in Northern Mozambique” is an ethnographic and performance-based study of women’s mobilities in southeast Africa through the lens of an expansive network of competitive dance societies that perform a popular genre of music and dance called tufo. Her current book project, Beauties in Motion: Performance, Affect, and the Gendered Politics of Mobility in Mozambique, documents the innovative ways in which dancers pursue mobility amidst political, economic and social restraints, by foregrounding the aesthetic innovations, play, and feminine beauty practices that are central to tufo and its performance. In addition to her research on tufo, her secondary project on veteranos—night clubs for the elderly in northern Mozambique—examines listening, dancing, and DJing practices to understand the relationship between aging, memory and care.

Dr. Hebden’s work has been published in the journal Culture, Theory and Critique, and she writes on topics such as affect, (im)mobility, Indian Ocean soundworlds, and gender politics in popular music. Her research has been funded by Fulbright Institute of International Education and the Mellon Foundation, and she is the recipient of several grants and prizes, including the Society for Ethnomusicology’s 21^st Century Fellowship and the Clara Henderson Award.

She can be reached by e-mail at ehebden2@unl.edu or ehebden@gmail.com.