People

Dr. Harris M. Berger is Canada Research Chair in Ethnomusicology and Director of the Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media, and Place at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. He has published widely in the fields of ethnomusicology, folklore studies, and popular music studies, and his books include Metal, Rock, and Jazz, Stance, and Theory for Ethnomusicology (Berger and Ruth Stone, 2nd edition). He and Jocelyne Guilbault founded and serve as the general editors for Music Research Annual, the first peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to publishing review essays from the full range of academic disciplines that study music.

Dr. Michael Frishkopf is Professor of Music and Director of the Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology at the University of Alberta, and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies at the University for Development Studies in Ghana. His research centers on fieldwork and applied projects in Africa (mainly Egypt and Ghana, as well as Liberia, Ethiopia, and elsewhere), and includes Music and Islam, Music and Migration, Music and Development, Music and Architecture, Digital Repositories, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, and Social Network Analysis. He is also a Third Stream performer and composer.

Dr. Judith Klassen is an ethnomusicologist and curator of Cultural Expression at the Canadian Museum of History. In addition to research and collection development in areas of sound, puppetry arts, and other aspects of expressive culture, she is currently undertaking a research project that examines the complex and sometimes mythologized histories of popular music in Canada. Dr. Klassen has published in popular and academic fora and, with Anna Hoefnagels and Sherry Johnson, is co-editor of Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada. Dr. Klassen is a former board member for the Hnatyshyn Foundation, past president of the Canadian Society for Traditional Music, and has worked as a violist and string instructor in Canada, Mexico, and Paraguay.

Dr. Maureen Loughran joined Smithsonian Folkways Recordings as Director and Curator in 2023. A public ethnomusicologist by training, Loughran was the senior producer for the nationally broadcast public radio program American Routes in New Orleans. She wrote and edited radio segments on vernacular American cultural topics and artist interviews with a wide variety of important figures of American music, as well as producing long-feature documentaries on Woody Guthrie, Bessie Smith and John Coltrane, among others. She also served as deputy director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in New York, where she oversaw grants, managed artist relations and produced public programs. Loughran’s experience includes work in archives, both internationally at the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin, Ireland, and nationally at the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress. As a researcher, Loughran documented the sacred and secular music traditions of Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the Louisiana Folklife Program, while her doctoral research explored underground radio, soundscape gentrification and cultural community organizing in her hometown of Washington, D.C. Loughran holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Brown University.

Dr. Marcia Ostashewski is an ethnomusicologist and dance ethnographer, performer and educator, and Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at Cape Breton University (CBU). Founding Director of The Centre for Sound Communities at CBU, an arts-led social innovation lab that she established during her tenure as Canada Research Chair in Communities and Cultures, Dr. Ostashewski serves on the Society for Ethnomusicology Council, as well as on the executives of Canadian Society for Traditional Music and International Council for Traditional Music. She is also Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Alberta since 2015. In all her roles, she focuses her efforts in support of initiatives that challenge racism, colonialism, and systemic inequities and, especially through mentorship and training, supports students and emerging scholars.

Dr. Scott Smallwood is a sound artist, composer, and performer who creates works inspired by discovered textures and forms, through a practice of listening, field recording, and improvisation. In addition to composing works for ensembles and electronics, he designs experimental instruments and software, as well as sound installations and audio games, often for site-specific scenarios. Much of his recent work is often concerned with the soundscapes of climate change, and the dichotomy between ecstatic and luxuriating states of noise and the precious commodity of natural acoustical environments and quiet spaces. He performs as one-half of the laptop/electronic duo Evidence (with Stephan Moore) and teaches as an associate professor of composition at the University of Alberta, where he also serves as the director of the Sound Studies Institute.