Nili Belkind is a research fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from Columbia University (2014) and is an ethnomusicologist specializing in the Middle East—with a special focus on Palestine/Israel— and the Caribbean.
Nili’s award-winning book (International Council of Traditions of Music and Dance [ICTMD] 2022) Music in Conflict: Palestine, Israel and the Politics of Aesthetic Production (Routledge 2021) studies the complex relationship of musical culture to political life in Palestine-Israel. In the context of the geography of violence that characterizes the conflict, borders and boundaries are material and social manifestations of the ways in which the production of knowledge is conditioned by political and structural violence. The book examines the politics of sound to show how music-making reflects and forms identities, and in the process, shapes communities. Author has "followed the conflict" by "following the music," from concert halls to demonstrations, mixed-city community centers to Palestinian refugee camp children’s clubs, alternative urban scenes and even a checkpoint. In all the contexts presented, the monograph is thematically underpinned by the ways in which music is used to culturally assert or reterritorialize spatial and social boundaries in a situation of ongoing political violence.
Nili’s publications also probe the ways in which music-making intervenes on conceptualizations of place and space or anchors (emergent) modes of belonging. She has published articles or book chapters on topics such as music and: urban regeneration (2019); the construction of diasporic imaginations (2016; 2024); cultural intimacy across ethnonational conflict (2021); social movements (2013); cultural policy and diplomacy (2010 and 2021); Orientalism (2024).
Prior to her academic career Nili spent many years working in the US-based music industry. She worked as a world, Latin and reggae music product manager for Virgin megastores; label manager for RykoLatino and other companies; album producer and compiler; live showcase producer; booker; radio DJ; music writer (National Geographic Music Online, liner notes) and other roles. Two albums she co-produced (by Plena Libre) were nominated for a Grammy. In her work and research projects Nili always seeks to contribute to the artists and communities that have brought her into their fold.