NAME: Donna Lee Kwon
AGE: 36
ORGANIZATION THAT YOU WORK FOR: Grinnell College, in Grinnell, Iowa
JOB TITLE: Assistant Professor
TIME AT YOUR PRESENT JOB: 5 months

Describe what you do.

I teach at a small liberal arts college, perform as a musician, organize world music events and publish my own research. The types of courses ethnomusicologists teach run the gamut, but can include world music surveys, popular music classes, regional studies of music (i.e. East Asia, Latin America) and seminars in topics such as music and ritual. In the spring, I will be teaching “Music, Culture, Context,” “Musical Spaces, Places and Scenes” and an ensemble in “Korean Pungmul Percussion and Dance.”

Do you consider your job a passion?

If you consider bringing pungmul to the prairies a passion, then, yes! Seriously, I feel so fortunate to be able to offer a pungmul ensemble at the college level. Pungmul promotion aside, what’s there not to love about being an ethnomusicologist? Although I have definitely struggled with the pressures of academia, I can think of no other profession that challenges you to interface with music-making on so many different levels. In fact, I don’t think I will ever lose the thrill of finding new meanings in music. When you consider the myriad cultures of a constantly changing world, these meanings are endless and infinitely fascinating.

Are students at Grinnell receptive to learning pungmul?

I’ve only taught pungmul for a semester, so it is a little difficult to gauge, but I would hazard a tentative yes. In general, I have found Grinnell students to be receptive to just about everything. In particular, I have been impressed with my students’ willingness to sing songs in Korean, a language that is foreign to most who are taking the class.

How are you adjusting to living in Iowa?

I’ll say this for Grinnell — within one week I was on first-name basis with the coffee shop owners. In some ways, I am appallingly adaptable. In other words, I find myself falling into a pattern of doing what the locals do — with a few exceptions, mind you. For example, the main crops in Iowa are corn and soybeans, and now all I want to eat are local “heartland” foods: corn, sausage, squash, lots of soybeans. Interestingly, when I discovered that there is a Pulmuone Korean tofu factory in town, I instantly felt at home. Oh, and another key to my adjustment to Iowa: biking around in my retro-’70s, shiny-blue Schwinn Collegiate.

Describe your path here. What other jobs have you held?

Before going back to graduate school to get my Ph.D. in ethnomusicology, I tried a lot of different things related to music and the arts. Some of the highlights include starting my own pungmul instrument import business, gigging as a musician with a Bosnian folk and popular music ensemble, working as a music accompanist for modern dance classes, and working multiple jobs at Bay Area Asian American arts organizations, like the Korean Youth Cultural Center. After graduation and before coming to Grinnell, I was a Hearst fellow at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn.