Biography
Jacqueline (Lin) Georgis (she/her) is an ethnomusicologist with research and teaching interests in the music cultures of the Luso-African world; African popular music; migration; electronic dance music; and urban youth culture. She holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from Yale University, as well as a Diplôme Supérieur d’Enseignement from the École Normale de Musique de Paris and a B.M. from the School of Music, Ithaca College, both in cello performance. Prior to joining the Music Department at Holy Cross, Professor Georgis was a Society of Fellows postdoctoral scholar at Boston University (2023-2025), affiliated with African American and Black Diaspora Studies and the Musicology & Ethnomusicology Department. She is currently finishing a book on the late Cape Verdean singer, Cesária Évora, titled Cesária Évora’s Miss Perfumado, which is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing’s 33 1/3 Series.
Her second book project, tentatively titled Batida Nights: Luso-African Electronic Dance Music in Lisbon, examines questions of cultural hybridity and transnational exchange within the Lusophone-Atlantic. Through the lens of “batida,” a contemporary African inspired electronic dance music created in Lisbon, Portugal, Batida Nights traces the roots and development of Luso-African music in Lisbon from the mid-20th century to today, investigating the ways in which local producers, DJs, and record label managers have created alternative spaces of Afro-diasporic cultural expression and visibility.
Professor Georgis has presented her research at regional and national conferences of the Society for Ethnomusicology, as well as at conferences abroad in Denmark, Portugal, and the U.K. You can read her work in Sonic Signatures (2023), an edited volume on the phenomenon of migrant and mobile music-making at night.
When she’s not teaching or conducting research, Professor Georgis enjoys making music! As a classically trained cellist, she has been a member of various international orchestras, from the Orchestra Lamoureux in Paris to local orchestras in Massachusetts, including the Apollo Ensemble of Boston.