About

I'm a musicologist, educator, and musician.  Much of my work is concerned with how music is used, experienced and mediated in everyday life, especially by those on the margins of society. My current research project PRISONS OF NOTE: Mapping music and nuances in penal exceptionalism from the periphery, aims to map the use, experience, and circumstance surrounding popular music in places of detention. Starting in Norway, Iceland, and Ireland, this project uses mixed methodologies to gain insight into the complexities and effects of music initiatives in contemporary prison institutions.

My first monograph Dangerous Mediations: Pop Music in a Philippine Prison Video (Bloomsbury 2019; Winner of the IASPM-US Woodie Guthrie Award) uses a multidisciplinary approach to examine the overlooked, every-day use of music in a prison. Using a localised case study, this book and related articles in Postcolonial Text and Torture journal, asks broader questions about the use of music as a form of discipline in the digital era and challenges notions of music as an inherently positive force. My second book Made in Ireland: Studies in Popular Music (Routledge, Global Popular Music series 2020), co-edited with John O’Flynn and Lonán Ó Briain, examines various aspects of Ireland’s popular music scenes and genres, and serves as a critical resource on Irish popular music artists in local and global contexts.

I’m currently Principal Investigator of a three-year Research Council of Norway-funded project at the Department of Musicology, University of Oslo, and teach Master and Bachelor courses on Music and Media, Popular Music Studies, and Music, Archives, Heritage, and Historiography. Before this, I held academic positions and research fellowships at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, Reykjavík, the Institute of Popular Music at the University of Liverpool, Dublin City University, University College Cork, and the Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University. These days you'll also find me leading a monthly singing circle at Dubliner Folk Pub, and directing the Oslo-based Mná na hÉireann community choir.

Boards & Memberships

Advisory Board Member | Sounding the Feminists & Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland

Editorial Board Member | Arts Journal, Switzerland

Co-Founder | Nordic Sounds: Critical Nordic Music Network Norway

Co-Founding Member | GlasDrum  |  Not-For-Profit Multidisciplinary Arts Organisation, Ireland

Executive Board Member |  International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) UK & Ireland | Membership Secretary & Honorary Treasurer (2011-'16)

National Committee Member | Society for Music Education in Ireland (2013-'18)

Web Manager | The Council of Heads of Music in Higher Education, Ireland