LSE Music Research Network

Andrew Campling, Chorus Master

LSE Choir & Orchestra

Andrew is not actively conducting academic research at LSE as his focus is on leading LSE Choir; however, his academic interests include Schopenhauer's writings about the arts and the music of Sir James MacMillan.

E-mail: a.campling@btopenworld.com

Paul Dolan, Professor

Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science

Paul's research on happiness and well-being includes music. Most recently, this has involved an exciting collaboration with Fatboy Slim to measure an audience's happiness in real time, including physiological measures. This included live feedback of results to the audience, and yielded important results about how music affects the synchronisation of heart rates among large crowds.

E-mail: P.H.Dolan@lse.ac.uk

Fernand Gobet, Professor

LSE Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science

Fernand's research interests include the psychology of expertise, cognitive training, language acquisition, scientific discovery, AI, and computational modelling. He has conducted research on music expertise, career transitions of expert musicians and the putative cognitive and academic benefits of learning music.

E-mail: F.Gobet@lse.ac.uk

Dr Thomas Graves

LSE Library

Thomas holds a PhD in ethnomusicology and music psychology on listeners' emotional experience in qawwali music from India and Pakistan. His research interests are in music and emotion, music and trance, music and Islam, institutionalisation of music, and the moral anthropology of music.

E-mail: T.Graves@lse.ac.uk

Deborah James FBA, Professor

Department of Anthropology

Deborah has conducted research on the form and social history of black South African music, songs of women migrants in South Africa, and Kiba music performance. She is interested in (ethno)musicological topics and is an active performer of salsa, cumbia, jazz and world music in her department's band (formerly the 'Funktionalists', now the 'Post-Funktionalists').

E-mail: D.A.James@lse.ac.uk

Ella Jones, Communications Officer

LSE Faith Centre

Ella's interest in music is largely centred around choral music in the Church of England but extends to sacred music in various theological contexts. She is particularly interested in the relationship between theological texts and musical settings.

E-mail: E.Jones14@lse.ac.uk

Dr Kristina Kolbe, Visiting Fellow

LSE International Inequalities Institute

Kristina is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Arts and Culture at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Visiting Fellow at LSE International Inequalities Institute. Her current research focuses on grassroots music collectives across Europe enact new, critical approaches to cultural labour and creative activism at a time of prolonged austerity and far-right resurgence.

E-mail: kolbe@eshcc.eur.nl

Dr Jessica Kong, Study Advisor

LSE Life

Jessica holds a PhD from LSE, focusing on soundscapes of feminist protests in London. This includes research interests in music as a form of collective identity formation (through the experience of rationality, emotion, meaning and affect in music) as well as an ethnographic perspective of music in creating a contentious, political space. She is also a pianist who gives concerts in elder homes and hospitals, which inspires her current interest in music and wellness in everyday social spaces.

E-mail: F.Kong2@lse.ac.uk

Dr Suleman Lazarus, Visiting Fellow

LSE Mannheim Centre for Criminology

Suleman is is a criminologist and sociologist whose work focuses on the social and cultural aspects of cybercrime, digital fraud and the socio-cultural dynamics of offending. He is interested in how music and hustle narratives normalise, contest and reshape digital crime cultures, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia.

E-mail: suleman.lazarus@gmail.com

David Lewis, Professor

Departments of Anthropology and International Development

David is an anthropologist of international development and social policy, and has published on music and development. More recently, he has been working on relationships and synergies between social sciences and arts and humanities; he is also interested in contemporary folk and other music , and as a songwriter has released six albums.

E-mail: D.Lewis@lse.ac.uk

Dr Xu Li, Assistant Professor

Department of Management

Xu's research examines the interaction between creativity and formal and informal institutions, often drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from creative industries such as electronic dance music (EDM). He has published on how illegal remixing and bootlegging affect EDM DJs' gig opportunities, offering insights into how different forms of creative output shape artists' career advancement.

E-mail: X.Li33@lse.ac.uk

Dr Luke McDonagh, Associate Professor

LSE Law School

Luke is a legal scholar whose interests include music and copyright law. His research interests are in interaction between uncertain concepts of musical ownership in Irish traditional music and the formal legal system of copyright; he has also published on the interpretation of the rights of 'performer' vs 'composer' or 'author' in copyright law, and on the creative use of musical works without licence.

E-mail: L.T.McDonagh@lse.ac.uk

Dr Abenaa Owusu-Bempah, Associate Professor

LSE Law School

Abenaa's research concerns the criminalisation of rap music, particularly the use of music lyrics and videos as evidence in criminal proceedings. She has published on how rap becomes evidenc eof crime, including assessments of its relevance and prejudicial effect. She is Director of the 'Art Not Evidence' campaign, seeking dafeguards to prevent the misuse of creative expression as evidence in criminal proceedings.

E-mail: A.Owusu-Bempah@lse.ac.uk

Dr A-La Park, Assistant Professorial Research Fellow

LSE Care Policy and Evaluation Centre

A-La's work on the economics of mental health has included research on the health impacts of music. She has published on the effects of music on healthy aging, and the efficacy of music therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder, and is interested in music research for health promotion and disease prevention, as well as cost-effectiveness analysis for music interventions.

E-mail: A.Park@lse.ac.uk

Dr Rahul Rose, Visiting Fellow

Department of Anthropology

Rahul's research explores how practices, anxieties and ideas relating to attention have served as an important if understudied influence on the history, religion and aesthetics of north India. He has conducted ethnographic fieldwork with classical musicians in Banaras, investigating how the pursuit of heightened states of absorption, understood as a form of yoga, has been central to the 'hinduisation' of their tradition since colonial times.

E-mail: R.Rose1@lse.ac.uk

Max Wedmore, Musical Director & Conductor

LSESU Chamber Choir

Max is a musician dedicated to musical collaboration and pedagogical excellence. A music graduate, he focuses on thematic programming that bridges the gap between traditional and contemporary works, and continues to maintain his interest in the musicology, history and composition of Western classical music.

E-mail: lsesuchamberchoir@gmail.com

Dr Polly Withers, Research Officer

LSE Middle East Centre

Polly's research on feminist theory and the cultural politics of neo-liberal globalisation intersects with music through her work on Palestinian popular music. She has published on the reoresentation of queer masculinity through Palestinian alternative music, music and gender politics in Palestinian subcultures, gender, class and nation in Palestinian psytrance, and feminism in Palestinian hip-hop.

E-mail: P.Withers@lse.ac.uk