Southern-Pian Society

The Southern-Pian Society (SPS), the Music Department's affinity group for graduate students of color, is named after the two tenured women of color on the faculty of the music department: Eileen Southern (1920–2002) and Rulan Chao Pian 卞趙如蘭 (1922–2013). The society was founded by ethnomusicology alumni Krystal Klingenberg and M. Myrta Leslie Santana.

In the Spring of 2016, the two then-grad students addressed the need for more non-white faculty, as well as the need for support of an affinity group for graduate students who self-identify as people of color. The group gets together to share experiences, support, and information necessary for navigating a historically homogenous discipline and department, and arranges informal meetings with Harvard's visiting professors of color and with current and former faculty. We gather around a commitment to strengthening the academic pipeline primarily through building supportive and sustainable networks at and beyond Harvard, and by centering shared experiences and subjectivities to build community. 

While SPS has historically focused on matters pertaining to POC graduate students in the music department, SPS has expanded its focus to building, fostering, and supporting future generations of POC music scholars at every level. Specifically, our goal is to develop and sustain congenial relations between POC post-docs, grads, and undergrads, and work towards a more inclusive, connected departmental culture. 

Student members, present:

Jordan Brown (co-chair)
Eloy Ramirez (co-chair)
Stephen Tian-You Ai
Victor Anand Arul
Xavier Hadley
Sharri K. Hall
Jonah Nuoja Haven
Micah Huang
Felipe Ledesma-Núñez
Weilu Ge
Cana F. McGhee
Christina Misaki Nikitin
Shiva Ramkumar
Lucas Reccitelli
Luis Pabón Rico
Golnaz Shariatzadeh
Davindar Singh
Jelani Surpris
Sara Viola Speller
Sunday Ukaewen
Julio Zúñiga

Student members, past:

Krystal Klingenberg '19 (co-founder)
M. Myrta Leslie Santana '19 (co-founder)
Michael Uy '17
Pei-ling Huang '19
Rujing Stacy Huang '19
Diane Oliva '20
Tamar Sella '20
Rajna Swaminathan '21
Jonathan A. Gómez '22
Ganavya Doraiswamy '23
Laurie Lee '23
Anna Yu Wang '23
Payam Yousefi '23