Fields

The Caucasus, East/Central Europe, post-Soviet sphere; traditional singing of the Republic of Georgia; media archaeology; sound studies; history of sound recording technology; anthropological theories of race and evolution; archival methods in ethnomusicology; literary theories of polyphony

Profile

Brian Fairley is a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, where he teaches in the Music and History departments. In his work on traditional singing from the Republic of Georgia in the Caucasus, Brian brings together approaches from ethnomusicology, historical musicology, sound studies, and media archaeology. His manuscript in progress, Channeling Voices: Media and Difference in the Search for Georgian Polyphony excavates a series of experimental recordings of Georgian music from 1916 to today, showing how prominent scholars and scientists repeatedly tried to capture this elusive musical tradition on record. In a narrative spanning the Habsburg, Romanov, and Soviet empires—and reaching forward to Georgia’s post-independence present—this book rewrites the early history of multitrack sound technology while untangling thorny questions of race, nation, and musical identity in an intellectually vital crossroads of Eurasia.

Brian’s research has received funding from the Social Science Research Council’s International Dissertation Research Fund, the Wenner Gren Foundation, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus. His doctoral dissertation at New York University received awards from the International Musicological Society and the history journal Ab Imperio.

Current and Upcoming Courses

• Experiencing Music History in Pittsburgh (Spring 2027)
• Nationalism: Echoes of the Eastern Front (History, Spring 2027)

Publications

Books

(In progress). Channeling Voices: Media and Difference in the Search for Georgian Polyphony

Selected Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Forthcoming — "Polyphony." Theorizing Music for Antiracist Futures: Key Terms and Critical Methods, eds. Jade Conlee and Tatiana Koike. University of Michigan Press, January 2027.

2025 — "Singing at Your Own Funeral: Overdubbed Intimacy and the Persistence of Tradition in Soviet Georgia." Journal of Sonic Studies 27. https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3509747/3509748

2025 — "Sounds of Captivity: Prisoner-of-War Recordings in the First World War." Journal of the Royal Musical Association 150 (1), 303–312. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1017/rma.2025.10025

2024 — "The Texture of a Nation: Politics and Polyphony in the Caucasus." Theoria: Historical Aspects of Music Theory 28, 131–43.

2023 — "What Did Stravinsky Really Say about Georgian Music?" (In English and Georgian). Georgian Folklore magazine. August 7, 2023. Archived link.

2020 — “Blackbirds in the Archive: Genealogy and Media in a Century of Georgian Folk Song." Ethnomusicology 64 (2), 274–300. https://doi.org/10.5406/ethnomusicology.64.2.0274

Podcast Episodes

2025 – "Recording Georgians in WWI POW Camps." Interview on Eurasian Knot podcast. February 10, 2025. https://www.euraknot.org/recording-georgians-in-wwi-pow-camps/

2023 – "Polyphony." Interview on the High Theory podcast. August 27, 2023. https://hightheory.net/2023/08/27/polyphony/