African Studies Program

Sarah Marie Kgagudi is an educator with a dual Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology and Linguistic Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her career as an educator has roots at IU, where she taught isiZulu to the local community in the Bridges Language Program from 2012-2014. From 2014-2018, Sarah taught both Introduction to World Music and isiZulu courses at The University of Pennsylvania. Her summers were filled with isiZulu language practice and guest instruction at The University of the Witwatersrand, where she later served as a visiting researcher in the African Languages Department in 2018. From June 2018-2021, Dr. Kgagudi designed and facilitated the teaching of an interdisciplinary Creative Arts curriculum at African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. After a familial decision to move to the USA, Dr. Kgagudi is finding ways to meaningfully integrate her educational and personal experiences in South Africa with her professional life in the USA. 

Dr. Kgagudi's professional interests lie at a junction between music, linguistic anthropology, African studies and education. To build upon her knowledge in linguistic anthropology and African studies, Dr. Kgagudi is a visiting lecturer in Zulu Language and Culture in Indiana University's African Studies Program, and to facilitate professional engagement with music, she currently serves as the Upper School Music Teacher for the International School of Indiana. In both of these roles, Dr. Kgagudi focuses critically on postcolonial curriculum design, the strategic use of formative assessments and the differentiation of her instruction based on both student interests and attainment levels. Dr. Kgagudi's research focuses on the sonic (i.e. musical and linguistic) practices of daily, ritualized and staged life in the township of Soweto, as well as the social construction of this township's history and identity in contemporary South Africa.