Updated on 2025/11/06

写真a

 
DESSIATNITCHENKO, Polina
 
Affiliation
Faculty of International Research and Education, School of International Liberal Studies
Job title
Assistant Professor(non-tenure-track)
Homepage URL
https://polinadessi.com

Research Experience

  • 2021.04
    -
    Now

    Waseda University   School of International Liberal Studies   Assistant Professor

  • 2021.09
    -
    2022.03

    Doshisha University   The Institute for the Liberal Arts   Lecturer (part-time)

  • 2018.09
    -
    2020.12

    Harvard University   Department of Music   Postdoctoral Researcher

Education Background

  • 2011.09
    -
    2017.11

    University of Toronto   School of Graduate Studies (Music)   PhD in Ethnomusicology  

  • 2006.09
    -
    2011.06

    University of Toronto   Faculty of Music, Department of Anthropology   Hons. BA in Music and Anthropology  

  • 2003.02
    -
    2011.03

    Royal Conservatory of Music   Piano performance   Associate Degree in Performance  

Research Areas

  • Cultural anthropology and folklore / Theory of art practice / Aesthetics and art studies / History of Asia and Africa / Religious studies / Philosophy and ethics

Research Interests

  • ethnomusicology

  • Azerbaijan

  • mugham

  • Azerbaijani tar

  • anthropology

  • ghazal poetry

  • Islamic studies

  • phenomenology

  • affect studies

  • post-Soviet studies

  • postcolonialism

  • musicology

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Awards

  • China International Postdoctoral Exchange Program Fellowship

    2020   Yunnan University  

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

    2018   Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada  

  • The Youth Foundation Award

    2015   Ministry of Culture, Azerbaijan  

  • W. Garfield Weston Fellowship Award

    2014   Garfield Weston Foundation  

  • Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) – Doctoral

    2013   Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada  

  • Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement Award

    2013   Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada  

  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)

    2011   Government of Ontario  

  • Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) – Master’s

    2011   Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada  

  • David Y. Timbrell Award

    2011  

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Media Coverage

  • "Azerbaijani mugham and national identity" interview

    Internet

    VarYox platform   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0haufnOUGVc  

    2023

  • Arrangement and performance of Ukrainian song “Prayer” on Azerbaijani Instruments

    Other

    Consulate of Ukraine in Azerbaijan   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ3f-43iiaM  

    2022

  • "Polina Dessiatnitchenko, Ethnomusicologist, Tar Player, and Mugham Enthusiast" podcast

    Other

    Caspian Post   Episode 21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrmSca8ynjo  

    2021

  • Concert and interview, “Ustad Dersi” program

    TV or radio program

    Ictimai TV, Azerbaijan   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IGhLEUpgXA  

    2021

  • “Mugham: The Sound of Azerbaijan" guest speaker

    TV or radio program

    BBC World Service, The Forum   https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszjwj  

    2020

  • Arrangement and performance of Ukrainian Folk Song “Shchedryk” on Azerbaijani Instruments

    Other

    Consulate of Ukraine in Azerbaijan   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZQ8IeOtfPw  

    2020

  • Solo concert, Ictimai TV public television

    TV or radio program

    Ictimai TV, Azerbaijan   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsfZgHZgdS8  

    2019

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Papers

  • The Morphology of Dəstgah

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    Ethnomusicology Translations   13  2023  [Refereed]

  • Affect and Phenomenology of the Karabakh Voice

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    Problems of Arts and Culture: International Scientific Journal   16 ( 4 ) 32 - 41  2022.12

  • The Pearl of Muğam Philosophy: Qəzəl Poetry and Musical Hermeneutics in Independent Azerbaijan

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    Ethnomusicology   66 ( 1 ) 81 - 105  2022.04  [Refereed]

  • Phenomenology of Segah Mugham Creativity on the Tar

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

       2022.02

  • Affective Hermeneutics: Love, Mugham and Post-Soviet Azerbaijani Subjectivities

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    Asian Music   53 ( 1 )  2022  [Refereed]

  • A Nation of Lovers: Mugham, Karabakh, and National Identities in Azerbaijan

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    Eastern Countries International Academy of Architecture   21 ( 2 ) 192 - 203  2021

  • Recording review of “Mugham Souls, Traditional Music of Modern Azerbaijan”

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    World of Music (new series)   8 ( 1 ) 138 - 140  2019

  • "An Elder in Punk Clothes": Purged Frets and Finding True Mugham in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    Ethnomusicology Forum   27 ( 2 ) 136 - 156  2018  [Refereed]

  • National Consciousness in pre-Soviet Azerbaijan and the Development of Mugham

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    Problems of Arts and Culture, International Scientific Journal   65 ( 3 ) 36 - 49  2018

  • Pre-Soviet Shusha and Baku: The Creation of the Azerbaijani Tar

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    Traditions of Mugham at the Intersection of Science and Art     224 - 234  2018

  • Musical and Ontological Possibilities of Mugham Creativity in pre-Soviet, Soviet, and post-Soviet Azerbaijan

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

       2017

  • Book review of Aida Huseynova’s “Music of Azerbaijan: from Mugham to Opera”

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    Fontes Artis Musicae   63 ( 4 ) 317 - 319  2016

  • Rendering Musically the Form, Meters, and Meanings of Ghazal Poetry in Azerbaijani Shur Mugham

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    Azerbaijan Mugham Studies: Problems, Perspectives     185 - 194  2015

  • Exploring Intersections of the Historical, Musical, Poetical Journeys of Azerbaijani Mugham

    Dessiatnitchenko, Polina

    World of Music: International Scientific Music Journal of Azerbaijan   4 ( 61 ) 35 - 41  2014

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Books and Other Publications

  • Phenomenology of Segah Mugham Creativity on the Tar

    Routledge  2022.02 ISBN: 9780367470548

Presentations

  • Meter, Rhythm, and Intertextual Gaps in the Performance of Azerbaijani Qəzəl Poetry

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko  [Invited]

    Analytical Approaches to World Music Special Topics Symposium 

    Event date：
    2023.06
    -
    　

  • The Nightingales of Garabagh: Affect in Azerbaijani Mugham

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    Eighth Symposium of the International Council for Traditional Music Study Group on the Turkic Speaking World 

    Event date：
    2022.09
    -
    　

  • Toward Decoloniality through Intertextuality and Meaning-Making of Azerbaijani Mugham

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    International Council for Traditional Music Annual Conference 

    Event date：
    2022.07
    -
    　

  • “‘When it comes to Love, there is no Border!’: Classical Modal Music, Hybridity, and Intertextuality in post-Soviet West and Central Asia

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    Music and Spirituality Conference, The Sydney Sacred Music Festival 

    Event date：
    2021.09
    -
    　

  • A Nation of Lovers: Mugham, Karabakh, and National Identities in Azerbaijan

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko  [Invited]

    National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan Conference 

    Event date：
    2021.09
    -
    　

  • The Nava Mugham Beyond: Azerbaijani Musicians on a Mission to Recover the Lost Ideal

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    Sixth International Conference on Analytical Approaches to World Music Conference 

    Event date：
    2021.06
    -
    　

  • The Underground Conservatory of Azerbaijan: Affect, Intertextuality, and Islam in Private Musical Gatherings

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting 

    Event date：
    2020.10
    -
    　

  • "Azerbaijani Ghazal Poetry” lecture presentation

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko  [Invited]

    Course “Multisensory Religion: Rethinking Islam through the Arts” (Harvard University) 

    Event date：
    2019.11
    -
    　

  • 'This Path Leads to Eternity!’: Azerbaijani Mugham, the Affect of Eşq, and the Post-Soviet Identities

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference 

    Event date：
    2019.11
    -
    　

  • Performing a ‘Muslim Way of Thinking’: An Ethnomusicologist’s Moment of Alterity

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    British Forum for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference 

    Event date：
    2019.04
    -
    　

  • ‘Improvisation is not the right word!’: Native Terminology and Performance Techniques of Azerbaijani Mugham Creativity

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    Fifth International Conference on Analytical Approaches to World Music 

    Event date：
    2018.06
    -
    　

  • Restoring and Inventing Fret Positions on the Tar in post-Soviet Azerbaijan

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko  [Invited]

    Middle East and Central Asia Music Forum 

    Event date：
    2018.05
    -
    　

  • ‘True Mugham is Within Yourself’: A Decolonial Approach to Musical Creativity in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    British Forum for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference 

    Event date：
    2018.04
    -
    　

  • Performing ‘Mugham Thinking’: Creativities of Mugham in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    International Council of Traditional Music Annual Conference 

    Event date：
    2017.07
    -
    　

  • National in Form, Socialist in Content: Disciplining the Temporality of Mugham in Soviet Azerbaijan

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    “Rhythms of Social Change: Time, Rhythm and Pace in Performance” Symposium 

    Event date：
    2017.01
    -
    　

  • Improvising Post-Soviet Azerbaijani Identity in the Moment of Performance

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference 

    Event date：
    2016.11
    -
    　

  • Azerbaijani Mugham and Possibilities of Improvisation in Discourses and Experience

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    8th International Doctoral Workshop in Ethnomusicology 

    Event date：
    2016.06
    -
    　

  • Improvising the Beyond: Ghazal Poetry and the Creative Impulse of Azerbaijani Mugham

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    British Forum for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference 

    Event date：
    2016.04
    -
    　

  • ‘A Bird Needs Two Wings to Fly’: Relationship Between Music and Poetry in Azerbaijani Mugham

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    Conference on the Music of South, Central, and West Asia 

    Event date：
    2016.03
    -
    　

  • Imagination and Interpretation in the Story of the Azerbaijani Mugham Dastgah

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    Northeast Modern Language Association Conference 

    Event date：
    2015.05
    -
    　

  • Why is Sound Central to Religious Ritual? Performing a Distortion of Time in Ojibway Shamanistic Séances

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko  [Invited]

    Magic Circle Seminar, University of Cambridge 

    Event date：
    2012.03
    -
    　

  • Performing and Experiencing a Distortion of Time: Chronotopes of Ojibway Curing Séances

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    Society for Ethnomusicology Niagara Chapter Meeting 

    Event date：
    2012.03
    -
    　

  • Gerasim Stepanovich Lebedev’s Activities as Musician and Dramatist in India

    Polina Dessiatnitchenko

    Russian and Soviet Music: Reappraisal and Rediscovery 

    Event date：
    2011.08
    -
    　

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Syllabus

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Teaching Experience

  • Music and Culture Along the Silk Road

    Waseda University  

    2022.04
    -
    Now
     

  • Intermediate Seminar: Music and Identity in Modern Societies

    Waseda University  

    2021.04
    -
    Now
     

  • First Year Seminar: Music As Culture

    Waseda University  

    2021.04
    -
    Now
     

  • Music, Sound and Ritual

    Waseda University  

    2021.04
    -
    Now
     

  • Music and Musicology

    Waseda University  

    2021.04
    -
    Now
     

  • Introduction to Music and Musicology

    Waseda University  

    2021.04
    -
    Now
     

  • Advanced Themes in Anthropology

    Doshisha University  

    2021.09
    -
    2022.03
     

  • Music As Culture

    Tufts University  

    2016.09
    -
    2017.01
     

  • Music and Politics in the Soviet Union and the Post-Soviet World

    University of Toronto  

    2016.01
    -
    2016.06
     

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