Varun Soni

Varun Soni serves as a Director of the Music Preservation Project and Dean of Religious Life of the University of Southern California.

Dean Soni received his B.A. degree in Religion from Tufts University, whete he also earned an Asian Studies minor and completed the Program in Peace and Justice Studies.  He subsequently received his M.T.S. degree from Harvard Divinity School, where his graduate coursework focused on reltions of the world and their scriptural traditions.  Following his studies at Harvard, he recieved his M.A. degree throught the Department of Religious Studies at UCSB, wher he continued his graduate study of comparative religion.  He went on to receive his J.D. degree from UCLA School of Law, where he also completed the Critical Race Studies Program and served as the Cheif Articles Editor for UCLA's Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law.  He is currently completing his Ph.D. through the Department of Religious Studios at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.  Dean Soni is a member of the State Bar of California, the American Academy of Religion, and the Association for College and University Religious Affairs.

Josh Kun

Josh Kun serves as a Director of the Music Preservation Project and is an Associate Professor at USC’s Anneberg School for Communication & journalism.  Professor Kun's research focuses on the arts and politics of cultural connection, with an emphasis on popular music, the cultures of globalization, the US-Mexico border, and Jewish-American musical history. He is director of The Popular Music Project at USC Annenberg's The Norman Lear Center and co-editor of the book series "Refiguring American Music" for Duke University Press.

Prior to joining the USC Annenberg school, Kun was Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside. He holds a PhD in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley.

Kun is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Los Angeles Magazine. From 1998-2006, he wrote "Frequencies," a biweekly music column published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Boston Phoenix. His writing has also appeared in Tu Ciudad Los Angeles, Cabinet, LA Weekly, The Believer, Guilt & Pleasure, Village Voice, SPIN, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, and in Mexico's La Jornada and Proceso.

In addition to the Music Preservation Project, Professor Kun serves on the boards of Dublab, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and the Latin American Cinemateca, and on the editorial boards of American Quarterly, the International Journal of Communications, and The Journal of Popular Music Studies.

Professor Kun is passionate about preserving and share the rich cultural history of music and his involvement is instrumental in developing our marketing and communication strategies.

Luke Archer

Luke Archer is the cofounder of the Music Preservation Project.   Archer’s focuses on organizational leadership, content creation, and new media distribution models.  Prior to working with MPP,  Archer served as the President of the JustEnough Learning Company, Inc.  

Archer is passionate about youth music education and independent music.  From 2001-2007 Archer and his team developed and launched a new media brand for youth music instruction.  His out-of-the-box approach to music education provided results- 25,000 teenagers picked up an instrument and learn to play music for the very first time and continued their instruction in the first social network for music insturction, justenough.net.

In 2004,  Archer was contracted by Microsoft to develop the online music video channels on MSN Video.  For 3 consecutive years, Archer ran the Indie channel on MSN Video reaching over 11 million households.  During this same time,  Archer founded JustEnough TV,  a syndicated music video channel which promoted independent artists.

Archer graduated with Honors from the Institute for Management and International Entrepreneurship at California State University of Monterey Bay.

In addition to serving as a director for the Music Preservation Project, Archer also sits on the board of the Star Jasmine Music Foundation, an organization which provides music instruction and instruments to at-risk youths in Santa Barbara County.