Lexi Ligon Holloway is a Cultural Anthropology PhD candidate and Dean’s Graduate Fellow at Duke University.
Stemming from personal experience, her research explores how the mechanisms of white supremacy operate in classical music performance, examining how racial and aesthetic hierarchies position Black bodies as aberrant in these spaces. Specifically, Lexi's' research centers on the resilience and resistance that Black muisicians display in the face of racism in classical music pedagogy and performance.. As a filmmaker,
Lexi hopes to produce a multi-modal dissertation, consisting of a written portion and an accompanying documentary that attends to the aural and performative aspects of her research. Lexi has worked on the Decolonial Pedagogy Committee at Duke, and collaborated
with professors to create a Black feminist theories syllabus for incoming Cultural Anthropology graduate students. As one of the chairs of the Association of Black Anthropologist’s Student Interest Group (SIG), Lexi is passionate about working against gate
keeping practices that discourage Black and other POC students from feeling welcomed and valued. As a member of the Black Orchestral Network and a former violist, Lexi is excited about working to develop a mentorship initiative for burgeoning and junior Black musicians.