Maya Cunningham
Ph.D. Student

2019
Maya Cunningham is an ethnomusicologist, cultural activist and jazz vocalist. She has an MA in ethnomusicology from the University of Maryland, College Park. She also holds a BMus. in jazz studies from Howard University and a MA in jazz performance from Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. Her research interests are in African-American and Southern African traditional music and identity, jazz, culturally responsive music education and applied ethnomusicology. In 2017 she received a Fulbright fellowship to study traditional music and national identity in Botswana and has presented her research and writing at conferences nationally and internationally. In 2017 she launched Ethnomusicology In Action, a project thatuses music, video, radio broadcasts and educational curricula to share stories about the people of Africa, African America and the Diaspora. As a part of this project Cunningham has a radio show called Music In Culture: Sounds of the Black Experiencethat airs monthly on WOWD 94.3 FM Takoma Radio.