It may sound strange for me to admit it, but before entering UCLA's PhD program in musicology, I had no idea what musicology was. I had majored in ethnic studies as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, writing a senior thesis that told the story of mainly Chinese and Japanese American jazz musicians in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area, exploring how their musical activities intersected with the Asian American Movement of the 1980s. I only learned about the program at UCLA because my undergraduate advisor, José David Saldívar, recommended that I consider it. I certainly had not been groomed for this path. With only two semesters of introductory musicianship at UC Berkeley and about a year of private piano lessons, I had little formal training in music.

Compared to the other students I would eventually meet at UCLA, nearly all of whom had degrees...

You do not currently have access to this content.