Dr. Jason Winikoff is a scholar of timbre, drums & percussion, Luvale culture, Sub-Saharan African music, rhythm & meter, music analysis, and jazz. He amisparticularly concerned with the cultural dimensions of timbre as well as decolonial approaches to music analysis. His doctoral dissertation investigated the role of timbre in Luvale spirit manifestation in Zambia. Winikoff's work sits comfortably at the nexus of ethnomusicology and music theory. His research articles and reviews have been published in Music & Science, Analytical Approaches to World Music, and Ethnomusicology. Most recently, he wrote the liner notes and made recordings for an album of traditional Luvale music released by the International Library of African Music. Winikoff's work has been supported by the American Philosophical Association, the ACTOR Project, and the Public Scholars Initiative. Though his love of drumming has led him to a variety of music cultures across the globe, he has a special interest in the percussion traditions of Zambia, New Orleans, Haiti, and Ghana.

Winikoff is a proud student of multiple teachers from these traditions: Kapalu Lizambo, Josephine Sombo Muzala Chipango, William Vunda, Douglas Mwila, the late Samuel Samutala, Nomakanjani, Geoff Clapp, Jesse McBride, J.S. Kofi Gbolonyo, Emmanuel Attah Poku, and the late Damas "Fanfan" Louis. An avid fieldworker, Winikoff has made several extensive research trips to Zambia where he works closely with the Luvale- (and related) speaking peoples. He is a proud partner of the Likumbi Lya Mize Cultural Association, an organization appointed by his royal highness Senior Chief Ndungu and tasked with the preservation, promotion, and protection of traditional Luvale culture.

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Dr. Winikoff is currently an Adjunct Teaching Professor at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute where he teaches a World Music course. In the past, he has taught a Music of Africa course, co-led an African Drum & Dance ensemble, and been a teaching assistant for courses like Musical Rhythm and Human Experience, History of Popular Music, History of Jazz, History of African American Music, and Introduction to World Music.

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Winikoff serves as an editor and reviewer of the Analytical Approaches to World Music journal and a co-secretary to the Analysis of World Music SMT-SEM cross society interest group. He co-founded the ACTOR Project's Timbre in Afrological Music workgroup which produced two seasons of an Afrological Perspectives on Timbre and Orchestration speaker series.

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Research Interests: Timbre; drums & percussion; Luvale culture; masquerade theatre; analysis; rhythm & meter; Sub-Saharan African music; New Orleans; jazz​