Sarah Plovnick

Sarah Plovnick will receive her PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Berkeley (August 2024). Sarah uses ethnographic methods to study the role of communication media in contentious political environments. Her dissertation, entitled “Listening Through the Firewall: A Sonic Narrative of Communication Between Taiwan and mainland China,” examines the recent history of the Taiwan Strait (1949-present) from the perspective of sound and audio technologies, from loudspeakers and radio through social media and videogames.

Research interests: Taiwan policy, cross-strait relations, sound studies, social media, artificial intelligence and disinformation