The project provides the material and intellectual infrastructure for early career scholars to develop their dissertations and research projects. We are currently supervising/mentoring several Master’s and PhD dissertations.
Jasemin Khaleli
Queering the urban politics of transformation? Techno-spaces in Lisbon between precarisation and self-empowerment
Master’s dissertation | University of Viena
As Lisbon like many European metropolises is characterized by increasing uncertainty and social segregation due to drastic urban changes of transformation, it has been also proven a fertile ground for generating do-it-yourself (DIY) music spaces – as an ethos of collective engagement for social change. Based on multi-sited ethnography, this study explores the ways in which the tension between neoliberal forces and a DIY or queer-feminist agenda is lived out in spaces of techno electronic dance music (EDM), particularly at ‘mina’, ‘suspension’ and ‘Galeria Zé dos Bois’. It examines issues of queer place and music-making, how urban settings affect the subjective experiences of precariousness in the creative urban industry, and how ongoing hierarchies and cultural authenticities are negotiated. Indeed, subjectivities are at the core of this project. Drawing on the feminist tenet of embodied knowledge and performativity, the study also attends to the concerns of doing and queering nightly ethnomusicology: From cultural capital as a set of tacit knowledge assets to sensual listening practices and the transformative bodily participation in techno-spaces, this study aims to convey the encounters of gendered, sexual and technologically mediated bodies in ethnographic work
Links:
Khaleli, Jasemin (2020) «Queering the urban politics of transformation? Techno-Räume in Lissabon zwischen Prekarisierung und Selbstermächtigung” (Masters thesis at the University of Vienna). URL: http://othes.univie.ac.at/64688/.
English translation (2021) «Queering the urban politics of transformation? Techno-spaces in Lisbon between precarization and self-empowerment“, translation completed in September 2021 by Lian Rangkuty, URL: https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/view/o:1236591.
Sandra Crespo Pereira
Som e paisagem: uma etnografia sonora do Jardim do Campo Grande
Master’s dissertation | Universidade Nova de Lisboa
This project focuses on the study of the relationship established between Jardim do Campo Grande and its soundscape, which will be analyzed from a current and a historical perspective. From a current perspective, it was intended to perceive the sounds that constitute the sound environment of the garden, starting from a sound ethnography that comprised an attentive listening of the space, with the support of listening walks and listing of all its sounds. Given that the garden it is located in the center of intense traffic routes and close to Lisbon’s Airport, the most present sounds on the garden’s sonic environment were the sounds of traffic, the noise of airplanes flying at low altitudes over the park and the chirping of birds. Another focus of this study was to determine how the visitors of this park relate to their space and with the sounds that coexist in that area. Finally, from an historical point of view, it was intended to trace the history of the sound of Jardim do Campo Grande, from the moment that it was only a rural open space, in the XVI century, to the present day as an urban garden, comprising all the spatial changes that were carried out and the uses and functions that this garden has gathered during this period of time, as well as the ones that it currently holds.
Link:
Som e paisagem: uma etnografia sonora do Jardim do Campo Grande
António Claudio Nascimento
Street Musicians in Lisbon. Cosmopolitanism, Conflicts, Urbanity in times of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Master’s dissertation | Universidade Nova de Lisboa [In progress]
This thesis made a series of reflections about the complex relationship of street musicians based on the concepts: cosmopolitanism, conflicts and urbanity. It was possible to observe the influence of tourism and part of its dynamics in the city of Lisbon, more specifically in downtown Lisbon, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a bibliography that addresses questions about street artists and their performances, about economic issues, the aspects that show prejudice and xenophobia and the sensorial sonic experiences, from a perspective of Ethnomusicology and Geography about some socio-cultural phenomena in this city.
This observation work sought an understanding of the universe of street musicians, the street and the transformations in the city, We used the conceptual model developed by Timothy Rice called «Subject centered musical ethnography» – an ethnography of musical experience centered on the individual or small groups (RICE 2003) . This model is composed of three axes: time (small stories that influence the musical experience), place (space of sociability where the musical experience occurs) and metaphor (concepts and aspects that value the performative practice of these artists).
Therefore, it was possible to understand, emphasize and analyze the factors and aspects of this complex relationship in which performance, music and sound propitiate and/or articulate tensions between the various actors of different social, cultural and symbolic contexts in this city. However, without denying the importance of other perspectives on musical practices in everyday life, all the issues addressed in this article are from a Lisbon before the SARS-CoV-2/ COVID-19 pandemic.
Rita Barreto Correia
Ecos do Castelo: Memórias e transformação urbana num bairro turístico de Lisboa
Master’s dissertation | Universidade Nova de Lisboa [In progress]
Ecos do Castelo is a research project on the collective memories of Lisbon’s Castelo neigbourhood conducted by Rita Barreto Correia for her master theses in audiovisual anthropology at NOVA FCSH.
The research consisted of a long-term immersion in the daily life of the neighbourhood during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in order to create trust among the residents that would enable the activation of the memories of a neighbourhood that has become Lisbon’s main tourist attraction.
In addition to ethnographic interviews, the recollection of life stories and audiovisual records of everyday life in the neighbourhood, Rita created various gathering spaces at the Grupo Desportivo do Castelo for local residents to talk about the Castelo and its transformation.
Teresa Lacerda
“A cidade está deserta”: Ecologias da música ao vivo em Lisboa entre a crise financeira e o COVID-19
PhD dissertation | Universidade Nova de Lisboa [In progress]
A história recente de Portugal está enquadrada por duas crises, com repercussões nos meios culturais e artísticos: a crise das dívidas soberanas (2010-2014) e a actual provocada pela pandemia de COVID-19. Esta investigação estuda o impacto de ambas crises no ecossistema da música ao vivo na cidade de Lisboa com o intuito de gerar conhecimento situado que permita responder de maneira eficaz a situações de emergência futuras. O projeto adotará uma abordagem ecológica e etnográfica ao estudo da música ao vivo, que passa por mapear os espaços de performance e analisar a relação entre atores sociais, instituições, infraestruturas materiais e o entorno urbano num contexto de crises. O impacto da COVID-19 constitui uma ameaça real a sustentabilidade dos estabelecimentos de música ao vivo pelo que um projeto como este adquire uma renovada urgência. Aliás, permitirá identificar os desafios que enfrenta o sector, avaliar a sua resiliência e verificar a eficácia das políticas culturais de recuperação.