Mark Kligman is UCLA's Mickey Katz Endowed Chair in Jewish Music and Director of The Lowell Milken Fund for American Jewish Music at The Herb Alpert School of Music. He specializes in the liturgical traditions of Middle Eastern Jewish communities and various areas of popular Jewish music. He has published on the liturgical music of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn in journals as well as his book, Maqām and Liturgy: Ritual, Music and Aesthetics of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn (Wayne State University, 2009), which shows the interconnection between the music of Syrian Jews and their cultural way of life. His other publications focus on the intersection of contemporary Jewish life and various liturgical and paraliturgical musical contexts. He is the academic chair of the Jewish Music Forum and co-editor of the journal Musica Judaica. He is also on the board of the Association for Jewish Studies.