Nomi Dave is an interdisciplinary researcher working across music and sound studies, law, and anthropology. Her work explores the limits and possibilities of voice, music, sound, and silence in political contexts. She is the author of The Revolution’s Echoes: Music, Politics, and Pleasure in Guinea (2019, University of Chicago Press), which considers how authoritarianism becomes meaningful for ordinary people. Through a study of voice and quietness in Guinea, the book explores why musicians and their audiences might choose to support an authoritarian state. The book was awarded the Ruth Stone Prize in 2020 for most distinguished first monograph in ethnomusicology.
Respondent - Anne Meng is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. Her research centers on authoritarian politics and institutions, and game-theoretic approaches to the study of dictatorship. Her book, Constraining Dictatorship, examines how executive constraints become established in dictatorships, particularly within constitutions and presidential cabinets. Dr. Meng also has other work on leadership succession, autocratic parties, and powersharing. She has a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and is interested in finding new and creative ways to collect data on authoritarian institutions. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the British Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Theoretical Politics, Columbia Law Review, and Studies in Comparative International Development.
