About
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Issa Aji (he/him) is a Lecturer in Music Theory at the University of Texas at Austin. Before completing his Ph.D. in music theory at UT Austin, he received an M.M. in music theory from Temple University and a B.M. in music composition from Rowan University. Issa's research focuses on the intersection of musical experience and the expressively moving body. His work, which demonstrates how various forms of musical feeling are mediated through gestural expression, draws on a number of subjects, including emotion and gesture studies, affect theory, phenomenology, and cultural studies.
Issa's current research explores the Arab concept of ṭarab—understood as both a musical style and a mode of heightened affective engagement—through the words and lived experiences of Arab Americans. Funded previously by the Presser Foundation's Graduate Music Award, this work combines music analysis with ethnographic fieldwork to show how ṭarab shapes narratives of self-making across the Arab diaspora, serving especially as a vehicle for nostalgia and cultural belonging.
Issa has presented research at various regional, national, and international conferences, including the Music Theory Society of New York State, the Society for Music Theory, and the International Society for Research on Emotion. His research has been recognized by the 2022 Patricia Carpenter Award and the 2022 Irna Priore Prize for Student Research, and his publications appear in Theory and Practice, European Perspectives on Music Education, and on the History of Music Theory Blog.
As a bassist and amateur ʿūd player, Issa regularly performs with the Ghandoura Band (pictured bottom left), an eight-piece Arab music ensemble comprised of musicians from across the Arab world.
