Dr. Charrise Barron is an ethnomusicologist and scholar of African American religious and cultural history appointed in the Department of Music at Harvard University. She joined Harvard’s faculty in July 2022 while also serving as a Donald D. Harrington Faculty Fellow (2022-2023) at the the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music.
While her research, writing, and presentations have explored a range of topics in African American religion, music, and culture, her current book project centers on contemporary gospel music. This work illuminates the marked shifts away from previous eras of gospel performance and culture which have defined the last twenty-five years of the genre.
Dr. Barron earned her PhD in African and African American Studies, with a secondary field of study in ethnomusicology, from Harvard University. She holds a Master of Divinity summa cum laude from Yale Divinity School, where she was also an active student in the Institute of Sacred Music (ISM). Dr. Barron is a Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE) Doctoral Fellowship alumna, and a member of the Harvard University Society of Horizons Scholars. Prior to teaching at Harvard, she has held appointments and fellowships and taught at Brown University, Yale University, and Colorado College.