Kimberly Cannady

I am a senior lecturer in ethnomusicology and director of the music studies programme. As an ethnomusicologist, my work is grounded in ecological approaches to the study of sound and music. I am interested in how we relate to the world around us through music and sound and how they also help us to make sense of our experiences. I have conducted extensive fieldwork in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Denmark, and Greenland, and from this research I have published on issues related to music education, music and tourism, popular music, symphonic music, and traditional musical practices. My current book project foregrounds the roles of emotion and affect in rímur and kveða music in Iceland and is based on longterm collaborations and meaningful relationships with the musicians who make this music today. I also research the frame drum (qillat) and drum dance with Inuit musicians in Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland and explore issues of personal and social wellbeing, colonialism, and climate change. In addition to my Arctic-based research, I also research issues of gender and indigeneity in Aotearoa's mid-20th century popular music recording industry, and I explore how this history shapes contemporary experiences in popular music production and reception. My research has been supported by the Fulbright Foundation, the American Scandinavian Foundation, and numerous institutional grants from both the University of Washington and Victoria University of Wellington.

My work in Aotearoa New Zealand involves teaching courses on local music and sound, ethnographic research methodologies, popular music studies, and issue-based courses, such as music and gender, music and nationalism, and music and globalization, that bring together both local and international musical practices. I regularly supervise postgraduate students from across the school of music, and I welcome enquiries from students with research interests in ethnomusicology, popular music studies, and music studies more broadly.