Mark Feng is a Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology. He holds two MAs in ethnomusicology and musicology from the University of California, Davis and the Taipei National University of Arts. Mark is a trans-Pacific, activist ethnomusicologist, and his study at UC Davis was sponsored by the Taiwan Ministry of Education. Mark’s dissertation examines the intertwinement of whiteness and Han Taiwanese ethnic hegemony through the music and embodiment of Taiwanese heavy metal. He conducts musical ethnographic fieldwork in three major Taiwanese cities, Taipei, Taichung, and Takao.

His research interests include popular music and racial politics, music in social movement, phenomenology, globalization, East Asian and diasporic Asian music, videogame music, decolonial ethnomusicology, and transcription and analysis of music and dance. His peer-reviewed article can be found in the Formosan Journal of Music Studies. Other non-academic essays are in Pareview at the National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan. Mark is currently working on an article about the inspiration of African American blues music on the neotraditional Hakka Taiwanese music for cultural revitalization in the 2000s.

Mark is currently a teaching assistant, teaching undergraduate courses at the Department of Music, Department of African Studies, and Department of African American Studies. His teaching interests include World music, the global history of popular music, critical studies of music and race, critical transcription and analysis, and critical ethnography. Mark has been a Research Mentor in Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Undergraduate Research Center since 2020. In 2022-23, he was appointed a Teaching Assistant Consultant Fellow at the Center of Educational Effectiveness to develop and facilitate professional development workshops for graduate student instructors and provide consultation on critical pedagogical practices. In 2021-22, he was nominated for the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award. Currently, Mark is appointed as the Associate Editor at SEM Student News. Additionally, he is also a grant writer at Taiwan Love Joy and Charity Association, collaborating with an Amis musician Saytay, Sawtoy and a music group called Amis Kokang to advance the sustainability of Amis musical culture at the Fulafulangan Amis village in southeastern Taiwan.

Mark’s musical background is uniquely trans-Pacific. He learned heavy metal music from several renowned Taiwanese metal musicians, such as Jesse Lui from ChthoniC, Gang-Yi Lim from Beyond Cure, and Fish Huang from Inferno Chaos. Mark also plays jazz and Sundanese gamelan. He is an active member of the UC Davis capoeira angola group.

A full CV is available at: https://tinyurl.com/34af2udy