A book review is presented for The Politics of Musical Time: Expanding Songs and Shrinking Markets in Bengali Devotional Performance, authored by Eben Graves, by Jaime Jones.
Author Biography
Jaime Jones is an Associate Professor at University College Dublin, teaching courses in ethnomusicology and popular music studies. The research that grew out of her PhD (University of Chicago) examined affective publics, virtuosity, and Hindu devotional music in Western India. Over the years, her focus has turned towards issues of self-curation, digital media, and co-production in DIY music, the topic of her chapter in Made in Ireland (Routledge, 2021).
Over the course of her career, Jaime has sought to lead through collaboration, to create supportive learning environments, and to forge communities in the institutional context. She has served as Chair of ICTMD Ireland, is the co-founder of the National Concert Hall Gamelan Orchestra, and she has served as the Deputy Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Humanities (2020-2023). A dedicated educator and mentor, she has led multiple IRC-funded doctoral studies scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships as Principal Investigator, fostering the next generation of researchers. She has also worked as the editor for Ethnomusicology Ireland, and co-edited the 2022 volume Encounters in Ethnomusicology (Lit Verlag).
Her current projects emphasise dynamic and interdisciplinary approaches to music and research. She is collaborating with Dr Sarah Raine on the SFI/IRC Pathways project Improvising Across Boundaries: Voicing the Experience of Women and Gender-Minority Improvising Musicians (2023–2027). Additionally, she is undertaking a two-year research fellowship (2023–2025) through UCD Teaching and Learning, critically examining employability and work-integrated learning models in higher education. Since 2024, she has been engaged in a co-funded, multi-sited research project entitled Amplifying Resilience: Value(s) and Digital Sustainability in DIY Music Communities. Alongside more traditional papers and scholarly outputs produced by the research teams in Northeastern University (Boston) and UCD, Jaime has recently co-produced the short film Placeholder (2025), which vividly explores the value and the precarity of practice spaces for underground musicians in Ireland.
