BIO
Musician and scholar Dr. Julian Saporiti was born in Nashville, Tennessee to an Italian American father and Vietnamese mother. He grew up with music – his father was employed by Warner Brothers Records, and he consequently was “around music all the time.” After being educated in Jazz from the Berklee College of Music, he toured with his indie band The Young Republic (which was formed at Berklee) before pivoting and pursuing a masters and PhD in American studies. Julian Saporiti studied at the University of Wyoming for graduate school, and he describes that he “became Asian American because of [...] [his] studies.” His graduate education would not only have impacts on his identity, but it would also have impacts on his music as well. For his PhD dissertation at Brown, he created a project called No-No Boy (which was named after John Okada’s 1957 novel) that utilizes music to inform his audience about Asian American/immigrant history. In this interview, Julian Saporiti talks about his childhood and early musical experiences, discusses his journey in music and academia, and provides advice to those interested in both scholarship and music.