Franya J. Berkman
Franya Berkman was an assistant professor in the Department of Music at Lewis & Clark College. Dr. Berkman's major fields of study were ethnomusicology, jazz, gender and music. She also studied spiritual, cultural, and musical hybridity in the 20th and 21st century and life history in the study of music-culture. Her publications included Monumental Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane and "Appropriating Universality: The Coltrane's and Sixties Spirituality." Her album of compositions, Blessings and Protection, was released by RMI Records in 2012. Berkman died of complications from breast cancer in August of 2012 at age 43.