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Professor of Politics, Law, and Society
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Alex Perullo is a professor of anthropology at Bryant University in the United States. While his early scholarship, including the ethnography Live from Dar es Salaam and the musical collection Listen All Around, focused on the rise of music economies in East and Central Africa, his more recent research expands into the field of public health. He is currently examining aging and health among African populations in the United States and East Africa, as well as a comparative four-country study on community responses to rising rates of anxiety and loneliness. This study has shown how cultural traditions, local resources, government policies, and social networks can either exacerbate personal health problems or serve as pathways to improve one’s personal well-being. Perullo also works with the African Alliance of Rhode Island (AARI), collaborating on initiatives that support immigrant communities through health programs, cultural exchange, and urban agriculture. A former Fulbright Scholar and Centenary Scholar at SOAS, University of London, and recipient of a Mellon Foundation fellowship, Perullo’s career combines fieldwork and hands-on community engagement to generate solutions to pressing social and health-based problems.
Ph D, Indiana University
MA, Indiana University
Perullo, A., Consuming Copyrights: The New Commons, Digital Sound Recordings, and the Legalities of Ownership in African Music, Duke University Press.
Perullo, A., Editing a volume on "Imaginations and Alternative Futures in Eastern African Expressive Art Forms," forthcoming 2023 in a Special Issue for the Nordic Journal of African Studies. , Nordic Journal of African Studies.
Perullo, A., Education as Entertainment: Arts Broadcasts on Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam between 1970 and 1993, University of Dar es Salaam/ Mkuki wa Nyota.
Perullo, A., Fragmentation and Fermentation in Urban Tanzanian Hip Hop, Cambridge University Press.
Perullo, A., Politicizing the Commons: Street Vendors and Public Spaces in Tanzania, Cultural Anthropology.
Perullo, A., Review of Kwaito’s promise: music and the aesthetics of freedom in South Africa, by Gavin Steingo, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016, 320 pp., $30.00 (paperback), ISBN: 978-0-226-36254-0, Popular Music and Society.
Perullo, A., Silencing Societies Songs: The Rise of Censorship and the Limits of Social Justice in Tanzania, African Affairs.
Perullo, A., Time and Imagined Futures in Eastern African Art Forms, Nordic Journal of African Studies, 2024.
Perullo, A., Review of Legacy of Tanzanian Musicians Muhidin Gurumo and Hassan Bitchuka, Journal of Ethnomusicology, 2021.
Perullo, A., Music in East Africa, Oxford University Press, 2020.
Perullo, A., Teeth Appear Themselves: Laughter and Humor in East Africa, Ohio University Press, 2019.
Perullo, A., Downloading the Digital Archive: Ethical Issues and Copyright Policies in the Online Distribution of Archived Music., Oxford University Press, 2019.
Perullo, A., Review of Street Archives and City Life: Popular Intellectuals in Postcolonial Tanzania. Emily Callaci. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017, 296 pp. $25.95, paper. ISBN 978-0-8223-6991-2., Journal of Anthropological Research, 2019.
Perullo, A., Review of Street Archives and City Life: Popular Intellectuals in Postcolonial Tanzania. Emily Callaci. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017, 296 pp. $25.95, paper. ISBN 978-0-8223-6991-2., ournal of Anthropological Research, 2019.
Perullo, A., Review of Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra: Five Music Years in Ghana, American Ethnologist, 2015.
Perullo, A., “Musical Property Rights Regimes in Kenya and Tanzania after TRIPs,” , Sage Publishers, 2014.
Perullo, A., “Youth of Many Days: Authority, Health, and Pensions among Elder Musicians in Tanzania.", The World of Music, 2014.
Perullo, A., “Rights: The Rise of Rights and Nonprofit Organizations in East African Societies.” , Indiana University Press, 2014.
Perullo, A., “Rights: The Rise of Rights and Nonprofit Organizations in East African Societies.” , Indiana University Press, 2013.
Perullo, A., African Digital Archive (ADA), Online, Interactive Digital Archive, 2013.
Perullo, A., "Imitation and Innovation in the Music, Dress, and Camps of Tanzanian Youth," , Indiana University Press, 2012.
Perullo, A., Artistic Rights: Copyright Law for East African Musicians, Artists, Writers, and Other Authors, US State Department and Kwetu Press. , 2012.
Perullo, A., "Hooligans and Heroes Youth Identity and Hip-Hop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania," , Routledge Press, 2011.
Perullo, A., "Politics and Popular Song: Youth, Authority, and Popular Music in East Africa," , African Music, 2011.
Perullo, A., Live from Dar es Salaam: Popular Music and Tanzania’s Music Economy, Indiana University Press, 2011.
Merit Award, 2024
Faculty Innovation Grant, 2020
Grants for Inclusive Excellence, 2020
Merit Award, 2020
Service Award, 2020
Special Presidential Award Recipient for the Lookman “Buky” Folami Inclusive Excellence Award, 2020
Faculty Innovation Grant, 2019
Faculty Innovation Grant, 2018
Faculty Innovation Grant, 2017
Sabbatical Award, 2015
Bryant University Award for Excellence in Research, 2013
Bethwell A. Ogot Book Prize, 2012
Forty Under Forty Award, 2011
Aluka Award for Innovative Teaching, 2007
Tanzania Studies Association
American Anthropological Association
Anthropology Association of America
African Studies Association
Society for Ethnomusicology
Professor of Politics, Law, and Society