Dr. Matthew Franke is Master Instructor of Music History at Howard University. He has a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. from the University of Puget Sound. His main research area is French and Italian opera in the long nineteenth century, particularly Massenet, Puccini, Mascagni, and Bizet. But he also has strong interests in global music and the role of music in creating a sense of nationalism.