Jairo Moreno's work in music theory addresses the production of knowledge of music and the sonic in modernity from a historic-speculative perspective. He has written a major study of the history of listening in early modern and modern music theory and analysis, Musical Representations, Subjects, and Objects: The Construction of Musical Thought in Zarlino, Descartes, Rameau, and Weber (Indiana University Press, 2004). Syncopated Modernities: Musical Latin Americanisms in the U.S., 1978-2008 (forthcoming, U. of Chicago Press) presents an archival, critical, and ethnographic study of music’s precarious share in political practices during late capitalism, with a focus on the intersections of aurality, the politics of aesthetics, and Latin-American popular music in the U.S during the long 20th century. He is co-editor of the Oxford University Press series Critical Conjunctures in Music and Sound, and co-editor of Econophonia: Music, Value, and Forms of Life (Boundary 2, 2016). Most recently, he is conducting research and fieldwork with the Pankararu community of Brejo dos Padres (Brazil), part of work on aural practices and “empirical metaphysics” among midwives there and in the Colombian Pacific region. Awards include the Society for American Music 2005 Irving Lowens Article Award for Best Article (“Bauzá-Gillespie-Latin Jazz”), ACLS Fellowship (2009-2010), and National Humanities Center Fellowship (2012-2013). A former professional bassist, he appeared in five Grammy Award nominated recordings with the late Latin and Jazz percussionist Ray Barretto (Blue Note, EMI-France, Concord, Fania labels—1989-1997), played in numerous other recordings, and performed chamber music with guitarist David Starobin and the Ciompi String Quartet, among others.

Greg Urban has taught at the University of Pennsylvania since 1994. He specializes in cultural and linguistic anthropology, laws of cultural motion, and ethnography of corporations, among other areas. The author, co-author, or editor of seven books, including How Culture Moves through the World, Dr. Urban’s work has also appeared in American Anthropologist  and other journals. He also teaches in the Executive Development Program at the Wharton School's Aresty Institute of Executive Education, a program designed for professionals transitioning to a new level of leadership. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago.