Professional Affiliation

PhD candidate, Princeton University

Expert Bio

Matthew Honegger is a PhD candidate in musicology at Princeton University. His research interests center on cultural exchange and cultural diplomacy in the Soviet Union, with a broader interest in studying how border regimes affect music-making and knowledge production. His work has been supported by the Fulbright Program and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS).

Wilson Center Project

Soviet Cultural Diplomacy and the Origins of Soviet-U.S. Musical Exchange

Project Summary

During his time at the Kennan Institute, Matthew Honegger will be researching the breakdown and rebuilding of musical ties between the United States and the Soviet Union during the early Cold War. His project will investigate the legal, social, and rhetorical processes by which both countries recast cultural exchange as an inherently risky activity and the ways in which this shared suspicion shaped the reopening of exchange that began in the mid-1950s. This project is part of a larger critical prehistory of Cold War musical exchange, written from a Soviet perspective.