Lauren Eldridge Stewart's research interests include the cultural uses of classical music, folklore, and material culture across the African diaspora. She is currently writing a book about the influence of global aid on the contemporary practice of classical music in Haiti.
She has taught in the music departments of the University of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, and Spelman College, and performed Haitian piano repertoire both in Haiti and across the U.S.
Lauren’s work has been extensively supported by the Mellon Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. She has received the Howard Mayer Brown Fellowship from the American Musicological Society, the joint dissertation fellowship from UChicago’s Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture and Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, and the Social Science Research Council’s MMUF Dissertation Completion Fellowship.