Rachel Harris is a Professor in Ethnomusicology and Director of Research at SOAS. Her research is centred on China and Central Asia, and especially on the Uyghurs. She has conducted fieldwork in Xinjiang, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan for over a period of twenty years. She has fifteen years’ experience of teaching and doctoral supervision in the discipline of ethnomusicology, and has published two monographs and co-edited three volumes on music (Gender in Chinese Music, 2013, the ethnomusicology textbook, Pieces of the Musical World, 2015, and Theory and Practice in the Music of the Islamic World, 2018). She co-edited the journal Ethnomusicology Forum between 2004 and 2007. She currently co-convenes the Middle East and Central Asia Music Forum, and is series editor for the Routledge SOAS Studies in Music Series. Her current research interests focus on intangible cultural heritage, music and identity formation, soundscapes and state projects of territorialization. She works in applied ways with performance and transmission projects, including concerts, workshops, and recording projects, and has worked as consultant for the Aga Khan Music Initiative (2006-16).