Collaborative approach wins British Forum for Ethnomusicology student prize
Doctoral student Rose Campion and research partner Sheyda Ghavami win award for their paper
Whose Knowledge, Whose Production?: Experiences from Co-produced Research on Kurdish Singers in Europe
This paper, co-presented at British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE) Annual Conference, University College Cork, April 2024, was commended for its creative presentation style that used both English and German to highlight the multivocality of the research undertaken. It explored the peculiar challenges of working together as friends and breaking down the traditional subject-object divide between researchers and their collaborators.
This was a challenging and provocative paper on co-produced research that speaks to current attempts to decolonise ethnomusicology. The paper engages well with relevant scholarship and issues in ethnographic methods. The panel was particularly impressed by the creative presentation style and how it reified the complicated power dynamics between researcher and the researched.
BFE prize panel
The research project that inspired the paper is being carried out at the University of Cologne:
Female Kurdish Musicians in Germany: Life Stories and Livelihoods
This research project investigates the life histories and working conditions of female Kurdish musicians living in Germany. The diversity of Kurdish life in the diaspora is reflected through these stories of migration, artistic production, and forging a career in Germany’s music industry.
Research questions include:
- What are the life stories of female Kurdish musicians in Germany?
- How do these musicians address their audiences in Kurdistan and Europe?
- What challenges do these musicians face here?
As part of the project Rose and Sheyda are creating a song and story book that will be available online later in the year.
