About
Tomal Hossain is a scholar, musician, and advocate. His dissertation project examines tarana song performance regarding questions of nation, Indigeneity, and Islam among Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh. Tomal has previously worked on the songs of Kazi Nazrul Islam, the Bangladeshi American diaspora, and the sonic rituals of various transnational Sufi orders. Tomal’s research has been supported by various institutions, including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Watson Foundation, the Society for Asian Music, and the American Institute of Bangladeshi Studies.
Tomal specializes in solo vocal performance of Hindustani and Bengali musics, namely khayal and Nazrul sangeet, while also performing as a founding member and co-director of Hamnavai—a qawwali ensemble. His performances in these genres have elicited accolades from the Federal Association of Bangladeshi Associations in North America (FOBANA), the North American Bengali Conference (NABC), and the North American Nazrul Convention (NANC), among other institutions. He has also collaborated extensively with musicians specializing in other styles and genres, including those of karnatak, jazz, maqam, and Afro-Caribbean musics. He has performed throughout the US and abroad, including in Austria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Morocco, Singapore, Spain, and Uzbekistan.
Tomal serves as artistic director of the Rohingya Performing Arts Center in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. He also serves as a board member of Refugee Women for Peace and Justice, a Chicago-based non-profit organization. Before starting the PhD program in ethnomusicology at UChicago, Tomal earned a BA in Computer Science and Music from Amherst College (2017) and a certificate in ethnomusicology from the Five College Consortium (2017).
Workshops
- 20th & 21st Century Cultures Workshop (presenter)
- Ethnoise! (presenter)
- Sound and Society (presenter)
Teaching Experience
- “Music Analysis” (Lecturer), Spring 2024
- “Introduction to World Music” (Lecturer), Autumn 2023
- “Bollywood Beats: Music and Sound in Popular Hindi Cinema” (Course Assistant), Spring 2022
- “Introduction to World Music” (Course Assistant), Winter 2022
- "South Asian Music Ensemble" (Co-Director), Fall 2020–Spring 2022; Fall 2023–Spring 2024