@iaspmca

Paul Aitken is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds. His thesis research focuses on critical theories of gift giving, their relationship to music piracy and the ways in which this relationship may/may not present a challenge both to the music industry and to how we conceive of the exchange of cultural products. This project forms a part of his wider interest in popular music studies, ICTs, and critical/cultural theory. He has taught popular music history at Dalhousie University and political economy of the media at McMaster University, both in Canada, and Communication Theory at the University of Leeds. He is also an accomplished professional guitarist, with two independently released albums to his name Live at the Jack Lyons Concert Hall (1998) and York Sessions (2001). He has performed with a variety of groups in the UK, US and Canada. For more information visit http://paulaitken.com

Gage Averill is Vice-Principal Academic and Dean of the University of Toronto Mississauga and formerly served as Dean of Music at the University of Toronto and Chair of NYU’s Department of Music.  He is currently President of the Society for Ethnomusicology (2009-2011). He is an ethnomusicologist, specializing in popular music of the Caribbean and North American vernacular music.  His book on barbershop singing (Four Parts, No Waiting: A Social History of American Barbershop Harmony, Oxford 2003) won best book prizes from the Society for Ethnomusicology and the Society for American Music, and his book on Haitian popular music and power (A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey: Popular Music and Power in Haiti, Chicago 1997) was awarded the best book prize in ethnic and folk research by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections.  He has written on culture industries, applied ethnomusicology, Haitian popular music, Trinidadian steelbands, American barbershop harmony, music of the African diaspora, world music ensembles, Alan Lomax, music and militarism, and music in peace and conflict. He has recently finished editing a 10-CD boxed set of music and film originally recorded in Haiti in the 1930s by Alan Lomax. Professor Averill has consulted for the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Smithsonian Institute, the Organization of American States, and for films, festivals, and copyright law cases. He lives in Mississauga with his wife Giovanna Perot-Averill and his daughter Fiona.  For more information visit http://www.music.utoronto.ca/faculty/faculty_members/faculty_a_to_m/Gage_Averill.htm

Sandria P. Bouliane est doctorante en musicologie à l’Université Laval. Ses orientations de recherche s’articulent autour de l’histoire des musiques populaires des XXe et XXIe siècles au Québec et au Canada-français principalement. Sur les plans théorique et analytique, elle s’intéresse à la comparaison (musicale, littéraire et contextuelle) de chansons populaires (adaptation, appropriation, traduction), et les approches interdisciplinaires sont au çur de sa démarche en tant qu’étudiante et chercheuse. Elle a récemment contribué à l’ouvrage collectif La chanson francophone engagée paru chez les Éditions Tryptique en 2008 et a rédigé le contenu du module «Chanson populaire francophone au Canada» (http://chanson.ameriquefrancaise.org/ ) de l’Encyclopédie du patrimoine culturel de l’Amérique française lancée à l’automne 2009.

Durrell Bowman (Ph.D. in Musicology, UCLA, 2003) has taught 31 sections of 22 different music history courses (often on popular music or film music) at seven different universities, presented 23 conference papers and invited talks, published six journal articles or review articles and over one hundred reference articles or programme notes (including numerous popular music articles for the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada), written most of Be Sharp: “The Simpsons” and Music (in development), contributed a chapter on Rush to Progressive Rock Reconsidered, and co-edited and contributed two chapters to Rush and Philosophy: Always Hopeful, Yet Discontent (forthcoming).  He has also worked as a professional choral singer and in arts administration and computer support (part-time).  He went back to school for eight months in 2009-10 to study computer programming and in summer 2010 has an internship writing programme notes and designing related web pages for the Bowdoin International Music Festival and improving a database for the American Musicological Society, both in Brunswick, Maine.  His website is at http://durrellbowman.com.

William Echard teaches popular music history and cultural theory at Carleton University, Ottawa. His MA research was on Stompin’ Tom Connors, and his Ph.D.,concerned with Neil Young and musical semiotics (especially theories of virtuality, spatial-energetic iconism, and critical theory), led to a book published by Indiana University Press. Following the Neil Young project he published three articles expanding on areas of overlap between the neo-pragmatic semiotics of that work and aspects of Deleuzian philosophy (especially on the virtual as a framework for understanding the place of recordings in musical practices). His current work is on applications of musical topic theory in popular music contexts, and in this connection he is developing a book on psychedelia as a case study in the development of popular topicality. Since 2009 he has also been developing a secondary research area in ecologically informed approaches to musicology and music theory. His current CV and information on teaching activities can be found at http://www.carleton.ca/~wechard

Susan Fast is Professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. She is a musicologist whose primary area of research is popular music since World War II.  Her areas of expertise include representations of gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, constructions of self and other, performance and performativity, and geopolitical violence/conflict in contemporary popular music. She is author of the book In the Houses of the Holy:  Led Zeppelin and the Power of Rock Music (Oxford, 2001), a collection of essays that explores the body in musical performance, gender and sexuality, cultural appropriation/hybridity, and ritual/mythology in rock music. Her publications also include articles on Live Aid and cultural memory, constructions of authenticity in U2, performance and new technology, Tina Turner’s gendered and racialized identity in the 1960s, issues of feminism and rock criticism, gendered and racialized issues surrounding back-up singing, and on the mass-mediated benefit concerts that appeared after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. She is co-editor, with Kip Pegley, of Music, Violence and Geopolitics (Music/Culture series, Wesleyan University Press, forthcoming in 2012). Her current research project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, investigates issues related to gender, race and normative genre boundaries in rock music, and includes case studies on the vibrant scene of all-female tribute bands to hard rock and heavy metal, back up singing in rock music, and genre in the work of Michael Jackson. She is editing a special issue of Popular Music and Society entitled Michael Jackson:  Musical Subjectivities (see the CFP here:  http://www.iaspm.net/?p=125). She is Coordinator of the graduate programs in Gender Studies and Feminist Research at McMaster (http://gsfr.mcmaster.ca/index.html), and she sits on the executive of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Canadian Branch.

Brian Fauteux is a PhD Candidate in the Joint Doctorate in Communication program at Concordia University. His dissertation explores the development of Canadian campus radio broadcasting, considering the technological, political, cultural and economic factors that have shaped this broadcasting system. His research also conceptualizes and problematizes notions of “alternativeness” as it applies to campus and community radio, particularly in relation to music scenes, “independent” and “local” music, and broadcasting policy. This work extends from his MA Thesis, titled “Campus Frequencies: The ‘Alternativeness’ of Canadian Campus Radio.” Additional recent work examines the use of manifestos in the genre of punk music, and televised performance scenes in musical biopics.

Nicholas Greco is Assistant Professor of Communications and Media at Providence College in Otterburne, MB. His research interests include gender and the singing voice in popular music. Dr. Greco has written on Morrissey and the enigmatic star image, as well as the singing voice of Canadian songstress Leslie Feist. Recent work has focused on the television shows of Joss Whedon. Dr. Greco is also a founding fellow of the Canadian Institute for the Study of Pop Culture & Religion (http://cispcr.org). You can find out more at http://www.providencecollege.ca/college/programs/communications_and_media/, http://www.providencecollege.ca/college/faculty/nicholas_greco/, and http://nicholasgreco.ca

Scott Henderson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film at Brock University. He received his MA and PhD in Film Studies from the University of East Anglia, where his PhD thesis examined representations of youth in film and popular culture. His research focuses on issues of identity and representation in popular culture. He has published on diverse subject matter, including You Tube and youth identity, gay and lesbian film, British cinema, Canadian cinema and popular culture, and Canadian radio policy. He co-edited a forthcoming volume on Canadian television, contributing his own analysis of the CBC’s Shania Twain biopic. He is currently conducting research on the role of independent record labels in local scene formation in Hamilton, Ontario, Glasgow, Scotland and Toulouse, France, as well as undertaking a study of the shifting cultural geography of popular music, focused on the music scene centred in Saint-Etienne, France. For more information visit http://www.brocku.ca/social-sciences/graduate-programs/ma-in-popular-culture/faculty-staff/scott-henderson.

Nathalie Katinakis a récemment complété un doctorat en communication à l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) avec une thèse portant le titre « Héros, concerts et performances communicationnelles : Le réveil mémoriel à l’œuvre autour des figures de Mélina Mercouri et Mikis Théodorakis dans le contexte de la dictature des colonels en Grèce (1967-1974) ». Ses intérêts de recherche portent sur la musique populaire, la musique grecque, la performance, les concerts, les liens entre la musique et la mémoire collective, les rapports entre les chanteurs et leur public, le culte des héros, etc. De manière plus générale, son expertise s’étend des phénomènes, situations, systèmes et stratégies de communication avec une spécialisation pour les pratiques symboliques (rituels, imaginaire identitaire, archétypes, etc.), aux relations entre les faits de communication et de culture dans les sociétés occidentales contemporaines. Son site web: http://www.nkpole.com. Nathalie Katinakis recently completed a Ph.D. dissertation in communication studies at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). The title of her thesis is « Heroes, concerts and communicational performances: The memorial awakening around the figures of Melina Mercouri and Mikis Theodorakis during the colonels’ dictatorship in Greece (1967-1974) ». Her research interests include popular music, greek music, performance studies, concerts, the links between music and collective memory, the relations between a singer and his public, hero worship, etc. More generally, her expertise includes the study of communication situations, systems, strategies or phenomena, with a specialization for the symbolic practices (rituals, imagined identities, archetypes, etc.), and the relationship between communication and culture in contemporary societies. More information is available at http://www.nkpole.com.

Hélène Laurin est doctorante en communications à l’Université McGill à Montréal. Elle étudie les processus de valorisation de la musique et la culture metal articulés dans la presse rock mainstream de 1970 à 2005. Ses intérêts de recherche tournent autour des représentations des goûts musicaux, du journalisme rock, et de l’historiographie récente des formes artistiques contemporaines. Hélène Laurin is a PhD candidate in communication studies at McGill University in Montreal. Her dissertation is about the valorization processes of metal music and culture articulated by the mainstream rock press from 1970 to 2005. Her research interests revolve around representations of musical tastes, rock journalism, and the recent historiography of contemporary artistic forms.

Dr. Charity Marsh holds the Canada Research Chair in Interactive Media and Performance in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Regina. Dr. Marsh earned a Bachelour of Music in Musicology, Theory, and Performance as well as a Bachelour of Arts with a concentration in Women’s Studies and a minor in German from the University of Ottawa. From York University she earned her MA in Women Studies problematizing the dynamic and contested relationship between nature and technology in the Icelandic artist, Björk’s 1997 album Homogenic. In April 2005 Dr. Marsh defended her thesis entitled, “Raving Cyborgs, Queering Practices, and Discourses of Freedom: The Search for Meaning in Toronto’s Rave Culture”, completing her Ph.D. requirements for the doctoral programme in Popular Music Studies and Ethnomusicology at York University.

Dr. Marsh’s current research focuses on interactive media and performance and how cultures and practices associated with this broad category contribute to dialogues concerning regionalism, cultural identity, and community specifically within western and northern Canada, and more generally on a global scale. In 2007 Dr. Marsh was awarded a Canadian Foundation for Innovation Grant and a Saskatchewan Fund for Innovation and Science grant to develop the Interactive Media and Performance Labs as a way to support her ongoing research. With the development of her new Interactive Media and Performance Labs (IMP) at the University of Regina, the emphasis of her research and arts practices include the following areas: 1) Canadian (Indigenous) Hip Hop Cultures; 2) DJ Cultures including EDM, Club-Culture, Rave Culture, Techno, Psy-Trance, on-line, community, and pirate radio; and 3) Isolation, Identity, and Space: Production and Performance of Popular Music in Western and Northern Canada.

In her artistic practices, Dr. Marsh incorporates interdisciplinary approaches and multiple medias, including turntablism, video, radio broadcasting, text, and soundscape composition. For more information go to http://charitymarsh.com

Andra McCartney has, since the 1990s, been developing an approach to the creation of electroacoustic soundwalk art which features reflexivity studies as an important aspect of the work, integrating audience responses into the creative development of walks and installations. Through her background in ethnomusicology, communication, and cultural studies, she thinks and writes about electroacoustic, sound art and sound recording fields as cultures, considering what kinds of interpretive routines are acceptable within these disciplines, and how aesthetic and professional discourses are established. For regularly updated information see http://http://coms.concordia.ca/faculty/mccartney.html

Chris McDonald is a lecturer in ethnomusicology at Cape Breton University. He did his doctorate at York University and has taught at York, Ryerson and the University of Western Ontario. His research interests include Celtic music, progressive rock, and theorizing social class with respect to popular music. He is the author of Rush, Rock Music, and the Middle Class: Dreaming in Middletown (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009). He maintains a blog on the topic of popular music and social class at this address: http://themiddletownblog.blogspot.com/. Some recent publications include: “Interpretations of Tradition: Transforming Gaelic Song into Celtic Pop,” Journal of Popular Music Studies. Co-authored with Heather Sparling. Forthcoming;  “Myth, Mystery and Mist?: Secular Humanism and Spiritual Language in Rush,” in J. Berti and D. Bowman (eds), Rush and Philosophy: Always Hopeful Yet Discontent. Chicago: Open Court Press. Forthcoming;  “Open Secrets: Individualism and Middle-Class Identity in Rush,” Popular Music and Society 31(3), July 2008, pp. 313-328;  “From Both Sides Now?: Ethnomusicology, Folklore, and the Rise of the Canadian Singer-Songwriter,” in A. Hoefnagels and G. Smith (eds), Folk Music, Traditional Music, Ethnomusicology: Canadian Perspectives, Past and Present. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2007, pp. 50-60; “‘Rock, Roll and Remember’?: Addressing the Legacy of Jazz in Popular Music Studies,” Popular Music History 1(2), 2006, pp. 125-145.

Jeremy Morris is a PhD candidate in Communication Studies at McGill. He has a master’s degree in communication and culture from Ryerson/York. His research interests include the current state of the popular music industry, the digitization of cultural goods and commodities, and technologies of music production, circulation and consumption. Jeremy is also the Music Editor at Midnight Poutine – a local website devoted to music, culture, food and art in Montreal – where he hosts and produces a weekly podcast about bands playing shows in the city. Jeremy is currently finishing his dissertation, tentatively titled Understanding the Digital Music Commodity.

Chris Richardson is a doctoral candidate in Media Studies at The University of Western Ontario. He received a Bachelor of Journalism from Ryerson University in 2007 and a Master of Arts in Popular Culture from Brock University in 2008. His work focuses on intersections of popular culture, journalism, and the construction of space/place. He has written on Bloc Party, Tupac Shakur, Kanye West, and is currently co-editing a collection on habitus and representations of ‘the hood’ with Hans A. Skott-Myhre of Brock University. E-mail: cricha48 (at) uwo.ca

Karen Snell is currently an independent scholar working in the Toronto area. With a PhD from the University of Western Ontario in popular music and music education, her particular areas of research interest and expertise include: popular music in music education, the informal learning strategies of popular musicians, learning music in non-traditional contexts, turntablism, using popular ‘hybrid’ musics in school music teaching, the philosophy of music education, phenomenology and music teaching and learning, music cognition, and improvisation as social dialogue in popular music.

Heather Sparling is an ethnomusicologist at Cape Breton University and specializes in Cape Breton Gaelic song.  Her research interests include Celtic music, Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital, genre theory, cultural tourism, and transmission processes.  She has published several articles about popular renditions of traditional Gaelic songs.  She is a fluent Gaelic learner and teaches Gaelic in the Cape Breton community.  She is also an active flutist, playing with the Cape Breton Orchestra and small ensembles, performing both Celtic and classical repertoire. Information about our programs, courses, and research is available at http://www.cbu.ca/academics/folklore-ethnomusicology/index.asp.

Gillian Turnbull recently completed a Ph.D. dissertation in ethnomusicology at York University, which focused on issues of identity, community, and independence in the roots and country music scene of Calgary, Alberta. Her research interests include popular music and urban geography, community media, vocal performance practice, and the music industry. She has published articles on vocal expression in alternative country, the role of roots music in gentrification, and community radio programming in Canada. She has worked in community radio in Edmonton and Toronto and currently teaches at Ryerson University. More information is avaialable at http://www.ryerson.ca/philosophy/faculty/directory/turnbullg.html.

Jacqueline Warwick is a musicologist and associate professor in the department of Music at Dalhousie University. Her research focuses particularly on the function of popular music in negotiating gender and generation identity, and her book Girl Groups, Girl Culture: Popular Music and Identity in the 1960s (Routledge, 2007) discusses the importance of 1960s girl groups such as the Shirelles, the Ronettes and the ShangriLas, both to girl culture and to rock’n'roll history. She has published articles on topics such as the Beatles, vocal aesthetics in rock singing, bhangra in the South Asian diaspora, and expressions of anger in girls’ music. She is senior editor, responsible for entries on popular music since 1945, for the forthcoming new edition of the Grove Dictionary of American Music. For more information vist http://dal.academia.edu/JacquelineWarwick.


© Don Hall
 Dr. Charity Marsh holds the Canada Research Chair in Interactive Media and Performance in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Regina. Dr. Marsh earned a Bachelour of Music in Musicology, Theory, and Performance as well as a Bachelour of Arts with a concentration in Women’s Studies and a minor in German from the University of Ottawa. From York University she earned her MA in Women Studies problematizing the dynamic and contested relationship between nature and technology in the Icelandic artist, Björk’s 1997 album Homogenic. In April 2005 Dr. Marsh defended her thesis entitled, “Raving Cyborgs, Queering Practices, and Discourses of Freedom: The Search for Meaning in Toronto’s Rave Culture”, completing her Ph.D. requirements for the doctoral programme in Popular Music Studies and Ethnomusicology at York University.
Dr. Marsh’s current research focuses on interactive media and performance and how cultures and practices associated with this broad category contribute to dialogues concerning regionalism, cultural identity, and community specifically within western and northern Canada, and more generally on a global scale. In 2007 Dr. Marsh was awarded a Canadian Foundation for Innovation Grant and a Saskatchewan Fund for Innovation and Science grant to develop the Interactive Media and Performance Labs as a way to support her ongoing research. With the development of her new Interactive Media and Performance Labs (IMP) at the University of Regina, the emphasis of her research and arts practices include the following areas: 1) Canadian (Indigenous) Hip Hop Cultures; 2) DJ Cultures including EDM, Club-Culture, Rave Culture, Techno, Psy-Trance, on-line, community, and pirate radio; and 3) Isolation, Identity, and Space: Production and Performance of Popular Music in Western and Northern Canada.

In her artistic practices, Dr. Marsh incorporates interdisciplinary approaches and multiple medias, including turntablism, video, radio broadcasting, text, and soundscape composition.

Archives