Laryea Akwetteh is a scholar and performing artist with a strong interest in ritual and sound studies, music and material culture, African pianism, and everyday life. He holds degrees in music and African Studies from the University of Ghana, Legon, and teaches at the Institute of African Studies in the same university. Akwetteh is currently a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, Canada.
Cynthia Cyrus serves as Professor of Musicology and Affiliated Faculty in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Her research focuses on women's historical musical literacy, leading to significant works such as The Scribes for Women's Convents in Late Medieval Germany (Toronto, 2009) and Received Medievalisms: A Cognitive Geography of Viennese Women's Convents (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2013). Cyrus's scholarly pursuits also extend to Shakespearean studies, where she explores the intersection of literature and music. Her recent publications include an article on signposting in YouTube covers of Nino Rota's theme for Romeo and Juliet in Literature/Film Quarterly and an analysis of disco elements in the Richard II production at the 2023 Stratford Festival in Multicultural Shakespeare. She has previously contributed to Popular Music with her article ‘Selling an Image: Girl Groups of the 1960s.’
Laura Jordán González is an associate professor of musicology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, in Chile. She is a researcher at the Millennium Nucleus on Musical and Sound Cultures. She develops a line of research on the relationship between music and politics focused on the dictatorial period, with a special attention on the New Chilean Song. Some of her recent work appeared in Cultural Critique, Revista de História, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture and Resonancias. She is co-author, with Andrea Salazar, of the book Trafülkantun: cantos cruzados entre Garrido y Curilem (Ariadna Ediciones 2022). Her current project ‘Culturas del casete: tecnología, escucha y participación’ examines the past and present uses of the cassette tape in Chile.
Lee Marshall is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol, UK. He has published numerous books and articles on the popular music industry, musicians' working practices, and music consumption.
Moses Nii-Dortey (PhD) is a Senior Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Music & Dance Section of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon. He was a recipient of the African Presidential Fellowship, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2009), and the AHP Fellowship with residency at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, (2011–2012). Nii-Dortey has published widely on Arts Research in Africa, Ghanaian Folk Opera, Traditional Festivals as Integrated Performances, African Popular Music, and Disparities in Ghana's Pre-tertiary Music Education. In the last 20 years, Nii-Dortey has also been involved in applied ethnomusicological initiatives to safeguard Ghana's endangered folk operatic tradition pioneered in the 1960s; this effort produced a documentary (2017/2018) and a film Adaptation (2023) of The Lost Fishermen folk opera.
Marco Roque de Freitas completed his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology in May 2019 under the program Doctor Europaeus. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor and Junior Researcher at NOVA FCSH (New University of Lisbon). His academic production focuses on the following themes: nation-building and nationalism in postcolonial Africa; expressive behaviour, gender, and sexuality; popular music and the study of music industries; digital humanities and research infrastructures; and history of ethnomusicology. He has published two books, including A Construção Sonora de Moçambique 1974–1994 (Kulungwana, 2020; Sistema Solar, 2024). In April 2023, he started a new individual research project, ‘Battle of Frequencies’, aiming to explore the place of music, radio broadcasting, and political propaganda during the liberation war in Mozambique (1964–1974).
