****Forwarded message from Katherine Schofield <[log in to unmask]>****

Two PhD Studentships, King's College London: Musical Transitions to European Colonialism in the Eastern Indian Ocean

Deadline for applications: 1 February 2011
Contact: [log in to unmask]

The Department of Music at King’s College London is pleased to announce two PhD studentships, one in the ethnomusicology/cultural history of North India, the other in that of the Malay Peninsula, to start no later than 1 September 2011. These form part of a new European Research Council project “Musical Transitions to European Colonialism in the Eastern Indian Ocean” under the direction of the Principal Investigator, Dr Katherine Butler Schofield. Brief details of the project can be found at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/depts/music/news/index.html - mustecio

Each studentship has a total value of £19,590 per annum (inclusive of London weighting), from which tuition fees (currently £3,600 for Home/EU students and £12,300 for Overseas) must be paid. The Department will support international students in any applications for additional funding, including King’s internal awards.

The deadline for applications is 1 February 2011, although late applications may be considered. Applications must be made via King’s online application form for postgraduate study: https://myapplication.kcl.ac.uk. In all cases, candidates should first express their interest in one or other studentship to Dr Katherine Schofield [log in to unmask] who will provide guidance on suitability and specific instructions on the materials required with the formal application.


1) PhD Studentship: Awadh Case Study (North India).

The Awadh case study will examine music and dance in the court of Awadh c.1750-1887: initially in the context of cultural competition between the Nawabi court in Lucknow, the Mughal capital Delhi and the British Residency in Lucknow; then, after 1856, in the context of the exile of the Awadh court to colonial Calcutta until the death of the last Nawab, Wajid Ali Shah, in 1887. In particular, this study will examine the mechanisms by which systems of musical and cultural knowledge changed in the transition from late Mughal to late colonial times, using contemporary archival records, treatises and other sources in several languages. Our first contention is that the period of indirect rule in Awadh, 1775-1856, incubated mutually permeable Mughal and colonial discourses that transformed the musical field, with the court at Awadh occupying a liminal space between the old Mughal culture of Delhi and the colonial culture of its true rival for power in Lucknow, the British Residency. Our second working hypothesis is that Wajid Ali Shah’s exile to Calcutta in 1856 – and the space for “mutual encounters” this opened up between members of his court and of the Bengal Renaissance who initiated music reform in 19th-century Calcutta – was the major pivot in the final transition from Mughal to late colonial musical fields.
We are looking for a suitable candidate to write a PhD thesis under the supervision of Katherine Butler Schofield on the relationship between Bengali and Awadhi cultures of Hindustani music patronage in British Calcutta, c.1800-1887, with especial focus on the musical life of Wajid Ali Shah’s court-in-exile 1856-1887. Candidates will have an excellent first degree, and preferably also a Masters degree, in ethnomusicology, history, South Asian studies or one or more North Indian languages. They should have fluency in Bengali and/or Urdu/Hindi (a good reading ability in the other language will need to be acquired in the course of the PhD) and demonstrate active interest in and knowledge of Hindustani music.


2) PhD Studentship: Malay Case Study (Malay Peninsula).

The Malay case study will explore how musical practices in the pre-colonial polities of Melaka, Johor, Kedah and Perak were challenged and redefined in successive transitions to Portuguese (1511), Dutch (1641-1824) and especially British colonialism (1786-1895). Through a detailed comparison of Malay and European materials, this case study will look closely at the transition between pre-British and British colonial systems of musical knowledge in the Malay courts of Melaka, Johor, Kedah and Perak, and the colonial port cities Penang, Melaka and Singapore. The project constitutes a pioneering study of music history in the pre-colonial and colonial Malay Peninsula before the 20th century. Using court annals, Malay histories and literature, official records of the Residents at Malay courts, travel writing, newspapers, magazines, advertisements and sheet music in Malay, English, Dutch and Portuguese, it will consider the interplay of Malay and European musical fields in the courts and port cities to assess the interpenetration of indigenous and colonial forms of knowledge.
We are looking for a suitable candidate to write a PhD thesis under the supervision of Katherine Butler Schofield, with the advice of the Malay Case Study Research Associate, on the transition c.1786-1895 between Malay and British colonial systems of musical knowledge in the Malay courts of Perak and Johor, and in Penang, Melaka and Singapore. Given the current state of knowledge about the source material, a more detailed hypothesis will be developed during the first year of the PhD. Candidates will have an excellent first degree, and preferably also a Masters degree, in ethnomusicology, history, South-East Asian studies or Malay language. They must have fluency in Malay (either Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Indonesia); preference will be given to candidates who also have good reading ability in Jawi script and/or Dutch. Candidates will also need to demonstrate active interest in and knowledge of Malay musical traditions in and around the Straits of Melaka.

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Katherine Schofield
Department of Music
King's College London
Strand
London
WC2R 2LS
tel: +44 (0)20 7848 2384
fax: 44 (0)20 7848 2326

****End of forwarded message**** 

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Dr J. P. E. Harper-Scott
Senior Lecturer
Department of Music
Royal Holloway, University of London
http://web.me.com/jpehs/
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