Kim Kattari

Kim Kattari earned her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology and a doctoral certificate in Cultural Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011. She received a Master of Music from UT Austin and a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Her primary research interest is Subcultural Studies. She is interested in how people’s lifestyles and interests (particularly non-normative ones) reflect and affect their personal experiences and identities. Her book, Psychobilly: Subcultural Survival (Temple, 2020), explores a musical subculture called psychobilly, which blends aspects of punk and rockabilly with lyrics, themes, and symbols derived from horror and 1950s B-movie subjects. The monograph explains why fans identify so strongly with this rebellious subculture, how they enact resistance through their performance of anti-mainstream identities and values, and how their participation in the psychobilly community significantly impacts their lives.

Dr. Kattari’s research focuses on how subcultural participants imagine and cultivate a kind of utopia, an alternative to the world that disempowers them. She is working on new projects related to EDM (Electronic Dance Music) scenes and regional “Burning Man” events that consider how participants enact and perform utopian communities. This work also examines the relationship between expressive performance and altered states of consciousness.

She has taught various undergraduate performance history, appreciation, and analysis courses, including Evolution of the American Musical, History of Rock, Music and the Human Experience, Music in World Cultures, Music of the Americas, and 20th Century Music Theory. She regularly teaches Introduction to Performance Studies and the Senior Capstone class (Performance as Research). She has taught undergraduate and graduate seminars on Altered States and Performance, Performing Vernacular Culture, Latinx Expressive Culture, Performing the South, and Caribbean Cultural Performance.

Dr. Kattari’s primary instruments are piano, keyboards, and guitar. She has performed in conjunto, gamelan, Afro-Pop, Latin American, and steel pan ensembles.

She is the faculty advisor for two student organizations: Maroon Steel (Texas A&M’s steel pan ensemble) and Album of the Week.

Subcultural Studies, Popular Music Studies, Steel Pan Performance, Performance and Altered States of Consciousness, Ethnomusicology, Performance Studies