J.W. Clark is a fourth-year Transfer from Fairfax, Virginia, majoring in musicology and minoring in philosophy. J.W.’s current research examines instances of musical practice and discourse that implicate other animals, particularly focusing on the ways in which linguistic habits and representational strategies may serve to reproduce hegemonic frameworks of human exceptionalism. They are the Editor-in-Chief of MUSE, UCLA’s undergraduate research journal for music scholarship, and a member of the Alpert School of Music’s inaugural Undergraduate Student Advisory Board.

Their senior capstone project looks to problematize musical characterizations of other animals to ask if these portrayals of other species might operate in ways inimical to their wellbeing, in addition to investigating the semiotic processes by which we “voice ‘the animal’” in Western musical contexts. Developing a species-specific approach to representational analysis, they examine how foxes, specifically those commonly referred to as “red foxes” (Vulpes vulpes), have been musically realized over the past century. Moreover, reading contemporary human practices of blood sport (foxhunting) and genocide (fur farming), they track how the sonic mode, particularly the “voice,” is mobilized to demarcate, police, and legitimize boundaries of non/personhood across species lines.

After completing their studies at UCLA, J.W. intends to pursue a PhD in musicology.