Lydia Warren is a Critical and Comparative Studies PhD student interested in constructions and perceptions of race, gender, authenticity, and meaning in American vernacular music, as well as regional specificity, participatory discrepancy, and cultural tourism.

After a decade of international touring and recording as a blues musician, Lydia began pursuing her love of music within academia, starting at Middlesex Community College. In 2011 she earned the school-wide honors of both a Follett scholarship and the annual music department award for “Most Outstanding Performance.”  Transferring to Smith College as an Ada Comstock scholar, she graduated in December 2013 with a B.A. in Music and received the Harriet Dey Barnum Prize for “Best All-Around Student of Music.” In 2013 Lydia interned at Smithsonian Folkways Records in Washington, D.C., sparking her interest in archival work and digital humanities.

Lydia likes the out of doors, urban and rural exploration, and practicing yoga.