Melissa Parkhurst

Instructor of Gamelan

department Music
office: Evans Center
specialty: Gamelan
email: melissa@lclark.edu

Melissa Parkhurst is a doctoral candidate in ethnomusicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work explores music and resiliency in off-reservation boarding schools, and her dissertation examines how music has functioned as a protective factor for students at Chemawa Indian School.

Recent papers have included “ ‘To Win the Indian Heart’: Music and Assimilation at Chemawa Indian School” (presented at SEM in Atlanta, November 2005) and “Teaching ‘America’ through Music: The Struggle for Assimilation at Chemawa Indian School” (presented at SEM NW Chapter, February 2006), for which she was awarded the Thelma Adamson Prize.

Melissa’s other areas of interest include central Javanese music, and she directs Lewis & Clark’s Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan.