Education:

Doctoral Candidate, Graduate School of North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

Stanford University, M.A., History; M.A., Musicology

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, M. A., Religious History

      Passed the university Hebrew language proficiency exam

 Swarthmore College, B.A., Religion and History

      Additional B.A. coursework in religion and history at the University of        

      Pennsylvania

Summer Semester 2018: "The Politics of Music: The Twentieth-Century Classical Music World in the United States"

Kira Alvarez specializes in international history and works in the intersection of music, religion, and politics. She seeks to understand the ways in which music operates across cultural and national boundaries. She is also interested in musical diplomacy, and in understanding how musical institutions and figures can act as cultural ambassadors for political causes. Her current research examines how, in the course of the twentieth century, the United States became a premier site for the interaction between the classical music world, and social and political movements.

Research interests: 

• Music as Cultural Diplomacy
• Music and Nationalism
• Cultural History of the United States in the 20th Century
• Biography and Historiography

Media

Deutschlandradio Kultur, Eine Faust gegen den Antisemitismus Bronislaw Huberman, Geigenvirtuose und Gründer des Palestine Symphony Orchestra, Kira Alvarez, 18.06.2017