Goldsmiths, University of London

Graduate Student, Sociology

About

My current research examines musical progressions, social class, and constructions of musical talent in classical music youth ensembles.  I am based in the sociology department at Goldsmiths College under the supervision of Bev Skeggs and Les Back. 

I completed a BA and M.Phil in social and political sciences at Cambridge, working with Georgina Born on cultures of classical music as well as a masters dissertation on political music in the UK (see talk attached).  I subsequently worked as a research assistant on several research projects with Mirca Madianou (Cambridge University, sociology), Deborah Holman and Claudia Schneider (Anglia Ruskin University, social policy) and Lucy Delap (Cambridge University, history).  I have also taught at  Anglia Ruskin University in the sociology and social work departments, and I am currently supervising at Cambridge in the sociology department.

My previous career was as a pianist and cellist in New Zealand and Scotland.  My portfolio involved performing, teaching and education work, including playing with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra and the Wellington Sinfonia, and teaching at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, as well as leading workshops for Scottish Opera Education, and working as a piano accompanist at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

I am also a committed activist; having previously been involved in environmental and asylum/detainee issues, my main focus is now feminist activism.