Education
- Ph.D., Ethnomusicology, University of Chicago (2025)
- M.A., Musicology and Ethnomusicology, Boston University (2018)
- B.A., Music Education, Universidade de São Paulo (USP) (2016)
- B.A., Psychology, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP) (2012)
Biography
Patrick Murphy is an ethnomusicologist specializing in Latin America and the Caribbean. Drawing on ethnography and historical research, his work lies at the intersection of popular culture, geography, and urban studies.
His current book project investigates bailes de corredor (corridor events) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. For this project, Patrick has conducted ethnographic research alongside funkeiros (people who play or enjoy Brazilian funk) who have been participating in corridor events since the 1990s. Corridor events feature fighting between two opposing sides separated by an empty space called the corridor, while DJs play funk, a local electronic music. His research focuses on processes of culturalization and criminalization of corridor events; the meanings of the funk substyle montagens de galeras; masculinity, sound, and chanting in contemporary events; and the effects of criminal governance on corridor events today.
Patrick also conducts historical research on popular culture and music in nineteenth-century Trinidad. His work examines Hosay, an Indo-diasporic procession commemorating the Muslim martyrs Hassan and Husayn; Canboulay, an extinct Afro-diasporic Carnival procession involving stickfighting, participatory music-making, and claims over urban territory; the Canboulay and Hosay riots of the 1880s that led to state eradication of both processions in major cities; Carnival characters such as the pierrot and pisse-en-lit; and the role of the Black middle class in shaping early calypso. Across this research, he analyzes links between urban geography, sound, and movement; state repression of popular culture; and the relationship between popular culture and British imperialism in colonial cities.
Patrick is also a practicing musician who performs jazz and Brazilian choro on the chromatic harmonica, and blues and pop on the diatonic harmonica.
Selected Publications
- Murphy, Patrick. 2025. “Funkeiros and Criminal Organizations in Rio de Janeiro’s Bailes de Corredor.” Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal. (Advance online publication)
- Murphy, Patrick. 2025. “Police, Processions, and Pacification: The Canboulay and Hosay Riots in 1880s Trinidad.” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 53(5): 1037–1076.
- Murphy, Patrick. 2025. “Carnival in Trinidad: The Pierrot and the Pisse-en-lit in the Late Nineteenth Century.” New West Indian Guide 99(1/2): 31–55.
- Murphy, Patrick. 2024. “Canboulay and the Nègre Jardin: Combat, Carnival, and the City in Nineteenth-century Trinidad.” Journal of Festive Studies 6(1): 318–339.
