Professor of Music, Music Education Department
he/him
André de Quadros has been described as “one of the most inspiring human rights educators of our time” by the Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights. He is a human rights activist, conductor, ethnomusicologist, music educator, and writer whose work has taken him to the most diverse settings in 40 countries including professional ensembles, projects with prisons, psychosocial rehabilitation, refugees, and victims of sexual violence, torture, and trauma. He is a professor of music in the College of Fine Arts. He leads Common Ground Voices, an Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding and reconciliation initiative. Through this project and numerous others in Israel and the Arab world, he has used music as a means of community mobilization and intercultural dialogue. A childhood refugee his life’s work has been aimed at the establishment of fair and equitable social systems. Many years with rival prison gangs and divided communities has served as a model for reconciliation work. https://www.andredequadros.com/
Over the past twelve months, Dr. André de Quadros has continued to advance his international work at the intersection of music, social justice, peacebuilding, and human rights. He led major artistic and dialogue initiatives through Common Ground Voices in Times of War, bringing together Israelis and Palestinians in creative responses to conflict, displacement, and polarization. Through Race, Prison, Justice Arts at Boston University, he expanded collaborative arts and educational programs with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, while continuing to publish and present internationally on abolition, dialogue, and transformative arts practice. He is the creative director of The Slaying of Innocence, a music-theatre project featuring currently and formerly incarcerated men. He co-edited and advanced four major scholarly volumes, including works on displacement, music and dialogue, arts and abolition, and music education in South Asia. Dr. de Quadros also received a major research grant as a co-PI to continue his study of displacement and belonging.