Dr. Ruth Opara’s research and teaching areas include music in Africa and the production of knowledge, Music and the Global Woman, music and gender, Black Atlantic Music, African music and transnational encounters. She is currently working on her book Music, Motherhood, and Transnationalism: A West African Perspective.

Before coming to Syracuse University, she was a Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the Department of Music, Columbia University, New York. Dr. Opara has also taught at Skidmore College, University of Colorado Boulder, and Nigeria as a Visiting Assistant Professor, instructor, and lecturer.

• CED Diversity Matters Program Award, Columbia University
• Summer Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Graduate School, University of Colorado Boulder.
• College of Music Graduate Student Grand Fund, College of Music, University of Colorado Boulder.
• Graduate Travel Award, Graduate School, University of Colorado, Boulder.
• Provost Fellow in the University Library, University of Colorado Boulder.
• University Fellowship, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Louisville, KY.