Zoe C. Sherinian is Associate Professor and Chair of Ethnomusicology at the University of Oklahoma. A percussionist and filmmaker, her ethnographic film on the changing status of Dalit drummers is titled This is a Music: Reclaiming an Untouchable Drum.
Tamil Folk Music as Liberation Theology helps us to understand what is at stake for people making a transformative choice to reclaim local folk music in a particular community and liturgical setting. It powerfully and eloquently traces a complicated history of caste oppression, missionary activity, the internalization of hegemonic attitudes, and loss of identity. * Asian Ethnology * [T]his book makes a huge contribution to knowledge of a socially significant genre just as neglected, until now, as the people who perform it. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice * Sherinian's book is of obvious interest to ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and other socially oriented scholars focused on South India and on Christianity, as well as being relevant for students of theology in a global frame (and liberation theology). . . . It also breaks ground as an ethnomusicological study of an individual, because it not only presents a musical biography but also structures its ethnomusicological analyses around the theoretical framework developed by that individual. * Global Forum on Arts and Christian Faith * Zoe Sherinian's Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Liberation Theology is a landmark study of how music can combat oppression. The book deserves to be read by all ethnomusicologists interested in social justice movements, applied ethnomusi-cology, South Asian musics, and global Christianity. * Ethnomusicology * Sherinian's book offers a compelling account of Tamil Folk music (complete with transcriptions and links to online recordings); its social locations, and broader theological potential-and makes a number of important contributions along the way. * Journal of Hindu Christian Studies *