Hannah is an ethnomusicologist, multi-instrumentalist, and creator of nourishing words and traditional arts.

A Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Riverside, her dissertation research explores the unfurlings of traditional music knowledge to education institutions, music ensembles, and popular music singer-songwriters through the body and voice of Chilean folklorist Margot Loyola. Grounded in two years of fieldwork in Valparaíso and Santiago, Chile, she follows generations of musicians and teachers surrounding Loyola from 1950 to the present to understand the audible ramifications that folklore studies has on cultural performance and representation. She connects fragmented archives and field sites to further theorizations of gendered performance, maternity and intimacy, mythification, and the voice. Hannah’s research is supported by the Fulbright Hays, Fulbright IIE, P.E.O., and Society for American Music, as well as the Department of Music and Center for Ideas and Society of the University of California, Riverside. 

Hannah has collaborated with Chilean musicians to publish collections of traditional local songs and performs regularly with folkloric ensembles in Valparaíso. Finding international collaboration to be a critical component of her scholarly endeavors, she frequently aids in Spanish-English translation for Chilean musicologists and co-presents at conferences with research collaborators. She published her master’s thesis research on musicking along the Camino de Santiago, Spain, in the International Journal for Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. Hannah currently serves as co-editor for the Society for Ethnomusicology Student Journal Rising Voices in Ethnomusicology, working to curate inspiring pieces that address relevant graduate student concerns in ethnomusicology. 

Hannah loves fostering community through intentional gatherings and is an active creator of music and fiber arts. She writes blessings and liturgies and has designed and officiated church services and weddings. While her beliefs in God and Spirit are expansive, she finds herself at home in the Anabaptist traditions. Hannah is a budding performer of Chilean traditional music genres such as the tonada and canto a lo divino, and writes and sings décimas to bring healing to herself and others. Finally, following generations of women before her, she discovers life in the slow process of sewing—specifically, cross stitching and embroidering.