About
I research on two fronts: contemporary Brazilian funk and 19th century Trinidadian popular culture. Currently, I am completing a dissertation on Rio de Janeiro funk events called bailes de corredor (corridor events). Corridor events feature physical conflict between two opposing groups separated by a space called the corridor, while DJs play Rio funk—a local electronic music. Each side is composed of galeras (attendees linked to place of origin), or groups of dozens if not hundreds of funkeiros (funk adepts) who represent blocks, neighborhoods, or favelas (informal communes) and, in perpetuity, either Lado A (A-side) or Lado B (B-side). The chief considerations that have emerged from my research include the history of corridor dances; the importance of music for rooting a sense of place among participants; the sense of territorial belonging among galeras; and the often-violent conditions pertaining to Rio de Janeiro and its relation to corridor events—all linked to a concept of funk and galera culture as part of a city divided by class, race, and, more recently, criminal governance.
Besides my research into corridor events, I also study nineteenth-century Trinidad. I research and write about (1) Canboulay, a post-Emancipation procession associated with territorial contentions and group belonging among Afro-diasporic migrants; (2) the late-nineteenth-century Carnival characters pierrot and pisse-en-lit, figures which challenged the Victorian morality of their times; (3) the Canboulay and Hosay riots of the 1880s, historical events which featured disputes over colonial space; (4) the role of the black middle-class in early developments of calypso, a popular music transformed by competitions and sponsorships; and (5) the importance of sound in the Trinidadian Hosay procession, a Muslim ritual performed by Indian migrants. My research on Trinidad is archival, and is linked to urban studies, performance studies, history, music history, and sound studies.
I also play the diatonic and chromatic harmonicas, specializing in jazz, blues, and Brazilian choro.
Publications
- Murphy, P. 2024. “Canboulay and the Negre Jardin: Combat, Carnival, and the City in Nineteenth-Century Trinidad.” Journal of Festive Studies 6 (1):318-39.
- Murphy, P. 2024. "Carnival in Trinidad: The Pierrot and the Pisse-en-lit in the Late Nineteenth Century." New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, 1(aop), pp.1-25.
Teaching Experience
- World Music (Winter 2024–Instructor)
- World Music (Autumn 2024–Instructor)
- Music of the Caribbean (Autumn 2023–Course Assistant)
- Latin American Civilization I (Winter 2022–Course Assistant)
- World Music (Autumn 2022–Course Assistant)
- History of Blues and Rock and Roll (Spring 2017–Course Assistant at Boston University)
- History of Jazz (Autumn 2017–Course Assistant at Boston University)
- Bob Dylan: Music and Words (Autumn 2016–Course Assistant at Boston University)