Research
Research starts with posing the right question. But when is a question right? Music has a huge potential to connect and divide people, to attract and seduce them irresistibly and to abhor them instantly. Hence, what is useful information for one person can be a painful exposure for another person. In my research practice as a musicologist I always work together with those who participate in the music that I am interested in: musicians, listeners and other researchers. Thus, in no way do I own or possess the knowledge I shape and acquire; it has been shared with me, and I consider it to be my job to also share it.
Music
Everywhere in the world, people play with sound: on musical instruments, with their voice, with their bodies, and in their minds. They enchant and surprise us with their play, they let us move, halt, remember and forget. How does this work? This question is my personal drive.
Travel
I have been travelling since my earliest childhood years. My parents took me along on their journeys to the many islands of the Indonesian archipelago where they worked a couple of months each year. After having gained my MA degree in the Netherlands, I continued my studies at the University of Oxford, with numerous months-long research visits to the German Literature Archive in Marbach am Neckar. My research into maskanda brought me to Durban, South Africa, where I keep coming back. Since many years I also regularly return to Yogyakarta, the town in Central Java where I grew up. Increasingly, I work with colleagues in Timor and Nias.
Skills
* Qualitative interview techniques
* Participant observation in fieldwork situations
* Archival research and archive curatorship
* Grounding of research findings in theoretical frameworks and existing research
BA, MA, PhD level
* Lectures
* Seminars
* Individual supervision
* Text writing and editing
* Moderating public discussions and debates
* Public lectures