Grant Woods is a PhD candidate in historical musicology at Columbia University, where he has been since 2019. Originally from Indianapolis, Grant received a Bachelor of Musical Arts from DePauw University (summa cum laude) with minors in History and European Studies. His research broadly explores the British Empire’s role in conceptions of British musical identity at the turn of the twentieth century, with a particular focus on folksong revivalism. His dissertation, “‘By right of inheritance’: Empire and Identity in the First British Folk Revival,” examines the First British Folk Revival’s ideological connections to the British Empire, arguing that, rather than being a localized movement, the Revival had far-reaching, global implications, intersecting with concurrent nationalist, imperialist, and racial ideologies. Some of his other research interests include musical exoticism/Orientalism, film music, propaganda, and music and cultural memory. Grant is also currently serving as a Senior Lead Teaching Fellow at the Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning, and is the Programs Coordinator for the American Musicological Society.
