Deirdre Morgan

Female

Vancouver, BC

Canada

Profile Information:

About me:

RESEARCH
I hold a Ph.D in Ethnomusicology from SOAS, University of London (2017), an M.A. in Ethnomusicology (UBC 2008), and a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies (UBC 2006). My research focusses on the cultural study of musical instruments, multi-sited ethnography, historiography, music revival, and transnational subcultures and scenes.

My primary research project is an ethnographic study of jew’s harp revival communities based on multi-sited fieldwork in Norway, Austria, Sicily, and online. My work uses the jew’s harp to examine how musical instruments reflect changing tastes, technologies, and social identities, and how transnational music communities are changing radically in the digital age. This research was supported by a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and a Research Scholarship from SOAS, University of London.

My work engages with the musical ethnography of Europe, and aligns with the growing area of historical ethnomusicology. While the jew’s harp has been one of the most popular musical instruments in Europe since the Middle Ages, it has long been seen as an object of little value, sitting at the junctions between classical and folk, public art and private enjoyment, and urban and rural. My research demonstrates how the jew’s harp and the study of “unpopular” music can be used to critically engage with the core concepts of value, virtuosity, and productivity at the centre of European musical discourse.


TEACHING
I am currently a sessional lecturer in music at Simon Fraser University and Vancouver Community College. My teaching interests include the music of sub-Saharan Africa and its diaspora; the trans-Atlantic feedback cycle; music transnationalism through a global, post-colonial lens; exoticism, fusion, and appropriation; gender and sexuality; critical approaches to power and underrepresentation in academia and the music industry. Regions of specialization: West Africa, South Africa, the Caribbean, North America, India, and Indonesia.

Simon Fraser University
Afrofuturism in Music (Term 1, 2018); elective for upper-level non-majors
Music of Transatlantic Africa (Term 1, 2016, 2017); elective for upper-level non-majors

Vancouver Community College
Afrofuturism in Music (Term 1, 2018); required course for upper-level Music majors
Women in Music (Term 1, 2018); upper-level seminar
Music in Context (Terms 1 and 2, 2018/19); team-taught first year history course
Music of Transatlantic Africa (Term 1, 2015, 2016, 2017); required course for upper-level Music majors
Music of India and Indonesia (Term 2, 2016, 2017, 2018); required for upper level majors

SOAS, University of London
Introduction to Music Analysis seminar (Term 1, 2014); required course for first year Music majors
Jew’s Harp Ensemble (2012-2013, 2014-15); performance ensemble/student society

As a band we are:

Touchtone Duo:
http://touchtoneduo.bandcamp.com/

SOAS Mouth Harp Society:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/362750343808560/

Collaborations with SOAS Ceilidh Band, Peyman Heydarian (Persian santur), and Amaraterra (pizzica-tarantella) can all be seen here:
http://overtonearts.com/blog/?page_id=168

Instruments:

Voice, jew's harps, piano, Balinese gamelan, miscellaneous percussion

Homepage:

http://www.deirdremorgan.com

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