Nathan Hesselink’s research broadly encompasses the topic of rhythmic play and social meaning, firstly in South Korean traditional percussion genres and more recently in British rock music. He received his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of London, SOAS, and was a postdoctoral research fellow in Korean studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to visiting posts at the University of Chicago, the Academy of Korean Studies, and the University of Oxford (St John’s College), in 2019 he was a Visiting Researcher at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

Select publications include P’ungmul: South Korean Drumming and Dance (University of Chicago, 2006, winner of the 2008 Lee Hye-Gu Award by the Korean Musicological Society), SamulNori: Contemporary Korean Drumming and the Rebirth of Itinerant Performance Culture (University of Chicago, 2012), “Radiohead’s ‘Pyramid Song’: Ambiguity, Rhythm, and Participation,” Music Theory Online (19.1.3, 2013), and “Rhythmic Play, Compositional Intent, and Communication in Rock Music,” Popular Music (33.1:69-90, 2014). He is currently Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of British Columbia and a Research Associate of the Centre for Korean Research.