The Music and Sound Cultures (MaSC) research group is dedicated to the analysis and understanding of music from the Arab World and surrounding regions through a hybrid methodology employing humanistic and computational methods. Among its several projects, the group is heavily engaged on the music and sound culture ethnography of the Arabian Gulf, including the UAE. This project combines digital archiving, anthropology, artificial intelligence, deep learning, and the digital humanities in unique ways to develop tools that provide a deeper understanding of this music and its cross-cultural relationships, as well as the creation of audiovisual documents and ethnographic art pieces for the dissemination of the music and sound culture from the region. Through an ever-growing collection of music and audiovisual documents from the Arabian Gulf, MaSC is developing new ways to compare, understand and disseminate this music with the goal of obtaining a deeper insight on its origins, influences, and cross-cultural traits.
Responsibilities for the position:
MaSC is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to collaborate with MaSC researchers and develop their own independent research on traditional music practices in the UAE and the Arabian Gulf and/or historically relevant regions (e.g. East Africa and South India). This work may take one or more of the following directions: 1) Anthropological (documenting and critically exploring contemporary practices of traditional music making to understand practitioners’ relationships to their musical traditions and how such traditions may be sustained/safeguarded); 2) Computational (developing computational strategies for the analysis and understanding of this music using MaSC’s ever-growing collection of original field recordings); 3) Artistic-Ethnographic (creating artistic work that critically reflects on the relationship of practitioners with the music and crafts of the region). The candidate is expected to produce a substantial record of peer-reviewed publications and/or artworks.
The candidate will also work on individualized research projects under the supervision of the faculty during the duration of his/her tenure.
This position is supervised by Profs. Carlos Guedes and Andrew Eisenberg, in collaboration with other members of the research group.
Essential qualifications:
Applicants must possess a doctoral degree in an area relevant to the stream of work in which they intend to engage and be willing to commit to MaSC’s research agenda. The ideal candidate will have language and/or musical skills relevant to the MaSC research agenda, an ability to work collaboratively as well as independently, and a genuine curiosity about the ideas and approaches of disciplines outside of those in which they have been trained.
Preferred experience:
Track record in the study of music and sound cultures from the Arabian Gulf and historically connected regions, experience in field work in anthropology.
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