Varun's research reframes discussions of "freedom" in jazz cultures through a lens of Sartrean existentialism. Building upon Sartre's claim that freedom is the anxious reality of being forced to take action in an objectively meaningless world, Varun argues that jazz represents the freedom of enduring the absurdities of the racialized existence of its musicians. Varun then applies these insights to explicate the life and music of the jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus, arguing that Mingus's eccentric, exaggerated, and enigmatic actions demonstrate the anxious existence of the jazz musician.
In addition to his work on jazz, Varun also studies pop-punk and emo music, highlighting the ways the genres respond to the depressing state of neoliberal decay. In the Spring of 2026, Varun will host "A Conference...But It's Midwestern Emo," the first conference dedicated to the study of emo music.
Varun has had articles published in the journals Jazz and Culture, The Journal of Popular Music Studies, and Musicology Now, and reviews published in The Journal for the Society of American Music, The Journal of Jazz Studies, and The Journal of Musicological Research. Varun has presented his research at a litany of national and international conferences, including all three major music conferences (AMS, SMT, SEM), Cultural Studies Conferences, Jazz Studies Conferences, and Popular Music Studies Conferences. Varun's research has been supported by WashU's Center for the Humanities Graduate Student Fellowship and WashU's American Cultural Studies Department's Lynne Cooper Harvey Fellow. He is also an affiliate of WashU's Center for the Study of Race, Equity, and Ethnicity.
In his free time, Varun can be found playing guitar, watching sports, or blundering pieces in online chess!
Publications:
“Jazz and Commitment: Sartre, Jazz, and Charles Mingus”- Jazz and Culture
“‘When Things Don’t Get Better, No Things Don’t Get Better, Just Different’: Emo and Affect Under Neoliberalism”- The Journal of Popular Music Studies
“‘If I Die, I Wanna Die in the Suburbs’: Pop-Punk and the Crisis of Neoliberalism,” Musicology Now
Conference Presentations/Organizing:
Organizer for “A Conference…but it’s Midwestern Emo”- Spring 2026
Sounding Like Money: Sartre, Adorno, and Bad Faith Phenomenology- The American Musicological Society (Fall 2025)
The Angry Man of Jazz: Charles Mingus and the Cultural Politics of Emotion The Society for Ethnomusicology (Fall 2025)
“When Things Don’t Get Better, No Things Don’t Get Better, Just Different”: Emo Revival as Cruel Optimism”- International Society for the Study of Popular Music US Chapter Meeting (Spring 2024)