Nathan Hesselink’s research broadly encompasses the topic of rhythmic play and social meaning, firstly in South Korean traditional percussion genres and more recently in British rock music. He received his PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of London, SOAS, and was a postdoctoral research fellow in Korean studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to visiting posts at the University of Chicago and the Academy of Korean Studies, in 2012 he was Trinity Term Visiting Research Associate, St. John’s College, University of Oxford.

Select publications include P’ungmul: South Korean Drumming and Dance (University of Chicago, 2006, winner of the 2008 Lee Hye-Gu Award by the Korean Musicological Society), SamulNori: Contemporary Korean Drumming and the Rebirth of Itinerant Performance Culture (University of Chicago, 2012), and “Radiohead’s ‘Pyramid Song’: Ambiguity, Rhythm, and Participation,” Music Theory Online 19.1.3 (2013). He is currently Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of British Columbia, and a North East Asia Council Distinguished Speaker for the Association of Asian Studies.

Made possible by support from the East Asian Studies Program at UC Davis, the William E. Valente Endowment in Music, and by a grant from the NEAC Distinguished Speakers Bureau.