A ḍamaru for Jagat-Candra: a historical musical instrument from Nepal (2025)
Journal Article
Sharma, N., & Widdess, R. (2025). A ḍamaru for Jagat-Candra: a historical musical instrument from Nepal. European bulletin of Himalayan research, 63(2024), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.4000/13mzv

Historical musical instruments are rare in Nepal. So far, a few examples of ritual instruments associated with former rulers have been identified. A previously unpublished hour-glass-shaped pellet-drum (ḍamaru) from seventeenth-century Bhaktapur is o... Read More about A ḍamaru for Jagat-Candra: a historical musical instrument from Nepal.

Ọ̀rúnmìliàn Film-Philosophy: Aesthetics of Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú in Saworoidẹ (2023)
Journal Article
Bello, S. A. (2023). Ọ̀rúnmìliàn Film-Philosophy: Aesthetics of Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú in Saworoidẹ. Film and Philosophy, 27, 89-103. https://doi.org/10.5840/filmphil2022111421

This article discusses a relationship between the philosophical praxis of Ọ̀rúnmìlà and aesthetics of Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú (i.e., the costume of the living and the costume of the dead) in Saworoidẹ (dir. Túndé Kèlání’s, 1999). I construct the Yorùbá/Ọ̀rúnmì... Read More about Ọ̀rúnmìliàn Film-Philosophy: Aesthetics of Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú in Saworoidẹ.

Censorship, citizenship and cosmopolitan unity in Muslim and Christian creative responses to repression in northern Nigeria (2022)
Journal Article
McCain, C. (2022). Censorship, citizenship and cosmopolitan unity in Muslim and Christian creative responses to repression in northern Nigeria. Africa, 92(5), 739-758. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972022000651

Nigeria is often portrayed as having a ‘Muslim north’ and a ‘Christian south’. Such representations oversimplify the complicated interrelationships between the two religious communities and their geographic locations. Similarly, while much has been w... Read More about Censorship, citizenship and cosmopolitan unity in Muslim and Christian creative responses to repression in northern Nigeria.

Humanities and Engineering Perspectives on Music Transcription: (2021)
Journal Article
Holzapfel, A., Benetos, E., Killick, A., & Widdess, R. (2022). Humanities and Engineering Perspectives on Music Transcription:. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 37(3), 747-764. https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqab074

Music transcription is a process of creating a notation of musical sounds. It has been used as a basis for the analysis of music from a wide variety of cultures. Recent decades have seen an increasing amount of engineering research within the field o... Read More about Humanities and Engineering Perspectives on Music Transcription:.

From parvenu to “highbrow” tastes: the rise of cultural capital in China’s intergenerational elites (2021)
Journal Article
Li, G. C. (2021). From parvenu to “highbrow” tastes: the rise of cultural capital in China’s intergenerational elites. The British Journal of Sociology, 72(3), 514-530. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12862

A new generation of elites distinguished by their cultural endowments has emerged in China. Unlike the older generation of elites who signaled status through the display of wealth but shared similar tastes, the new generation of cultured elites has s... Read More about From parvenu to “highbrow” tastes: the rise of cultural capital in China’s intergenerational elites.

Western listeners detect boundary hierarchy in Indian music: a segmentation study (2021)
Journal Article
Popescu, T., Widdess, R., & Rohrmeier, M. (2021). Western listeners detect boundary hierarchy in Indian music: a segmentation study. Scientific Reports, 11, Article 3112. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82629-y

How are listeners able to follow and enjoy complex pieces of music? Several theoretical frameworks suggest links between the process of listening and the formal structure of music, involving a division of the musical surface into structural units at... Read More about Western listeners detect boundary hierarchy in Indian music: a segmentation study.

Presence Through Sound: Place and Contemporary Music in East Asia (2020)
Book
Howard, K., Ingram, C., Ong, M. Y., McLaren, A., Liu, L., Roche, G., Kim, H., Maliangkay, R., de Ferranti, H., Terauchi, N., Finchum-Sung, H., Day, K., & Teoh, Y.-M. (2020). K. Howard, & C. Ingram (Eds.). Presence Through Sound: Place and Contemporary Music in East Asia. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429326295

Presence Through Sound narrates and analyses, through a range of case studies on selected musics of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Tibet, some of the many ways in which music and ‘place’ intersect and are interwoven with meaning in East Asia. It ex... Read More about Presence Through Sound: Place and Contemporary Music in East Asia.

The Constructed Soundscapes of Place in Korea, South and North (2020)
Book Chapter
Howard, K. (2020). The Constructed Soundscapes of Place in Korea, South and North. In K. Howard, & C. Ingram (Eds.), Presence Through Sound : Music and Place in East Asia (102-117). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429326295-8

This chapter explores sonic icons of Korean musical identity, asking how they are used today to establish an image of place that is far from what they stood for in the past. It considers the nationally and internationally familiar soundworld of kugak... Read More about The Constructed Soundscapes of Place in Korea, South and North.

Songs of "Great Leaders": Ideology and Creativity in North Korean Music and Dance (2020)
Book
Howard, K. (2020). Songs of "Great Leaders": Ideology and Creativity in North Korean Music and Dance. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190077518.001.0001

North Korea is often said to be unknown: a reclusive and secretive state. It behaves as if the whole country is a theatre that projects itself through performance. Song, together with other music and dance production, forms the soundtrack to the thea... Read More about Songs of "Great Leaders": Ideology and Creativity in North Korean Music and Dance.

Special Section: North Korean Popular Culture (2020)
Journal Article
Howard, K. (2020). Special Section: North Korean Popular Culture. European journal of Korean studies, 19(2), 1-128

Performing Arts of North Korea (2019)
Book
Kim, H., Jeon, Y., Kim, S., Ko, S., Bae, I., Kim, C., & Cheon, H. (2019). K. Howard (Ed.). Performing Arts of North Korea. National Gugak Center

Preface (2019)
Book Chapter
Howard, K., Park, G.-S., & Otmazgin, N. (2019). Preface. In K. Howard, G.-S. Park, & N. Otmazgin (Eds.), Transcultural Fandom and the Globalization of Hallyu (5-7). Korea University Press

Writing Hallyu, Defining Fandom (2019)
Book Chapter
Howard, K. (2019). Writing Hallyu, Defining Fandom. In K. Howard, G.-S. Park, & N. Otmazgin (Eds.), Transcultural Fandom and the Globalization of Hallyu (231-256). Korea University Press

Ardhanariswara: A Composition-as-Research Project for String Quartet and Dance (2019)
Journal Article
Gray, N. (2019). Ardhanariswara: A Composition-as-Research Project for String Quartet and Dance. Brief encounters, 3(1), 102-107. https://doi.org/10.24134/be.v3i1.140

The written component is a critical commentary on this video 'Ardhanariswara: A composition-as-research project for string quartet and dance’: http://briefencounters-journal.co.uk/BE/pages/view/nick-gray-ardhanariswara

Ardhanariswara is a musical... Read More about Ardhanariswara: A Composition-as-Research Project for String Quartet and Dance.

Segara Madu: Balinese gender wayang (2018)
Digital Artefact
Gray, N. (2018). Segara Madu: Balinese gender wayang. [mp3]

A performance by the group Segara Madu (Nick Gray and Paula Friar) of four pieces from the Balinese gender wayang repertory: Sekar Ginotan, Partha Wijaya, Segara Madu and Rebong. Recorded at SOAS, December 2018.

K-Pop as a Means to an End among Thai Youth: Korean Wave as Costume, Food, and Image (2018)
Journal Article
Howard, K., & Lekakul, G. (2018). K-Pop as a Means to an End among Thai Youth: Korean Wave as Costume, Food, and Image. Culture and empathy, 1(1-4), 18-33. https://doi.org/10.32860/26356619/2018/1.1234.0003

Assessments of the impact of K-pop beyond Korea, and of other aspects within the broader Korean Wave, often focus on groups of fans. The research reported here began from an intention to move beyond fandom, encouraged by a challenge to demonstrate th... Read More about K-Pop as a Means to an End among Thai Youth: Korean Wave as Costume, Food, and Image.

Boko Haram (2018)
Book
Kendhammer, B., & McCain, C. (2018). Boko Haram. Ohio University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv224tpdz

From its small-time origins in the early 2000s to its transformation into one of the world’s most-recognized terrorist groups, this remarkable short book tells the story of Boko Haram’s bloody, decade-long war in northeastern Nigeria. Going beyond th... Read More about Boko Haram.

Afterword (2018)
Book Chapter
Howard, K. (2018). Afterword. In B. Norton, & N. Matsumoto (Eds.), Music as Heritage: Historical and Ethnographic Perspectives (278-284). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315393865-14

Discourse on music as heritage has too often evaded the challenge of maintaining performance and creation, the factors that define artistic practice, and has instead concentrated on documentation, collecting, and archiving. Museums had or were establ... Read More about Afterword.

The Life and Death of Music as East Asian Intangible Cultural Heritage (2018)
Book Chapter
Howard, K. (2018). The Life and Death of Music as East Asian Intangible Cultural Heritage. In D. G. Hebert (Ed.), International Perspectives on Translation, Education, and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Studies (35-55). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68434-5_3

Rather than the objects housed in museums, it is the intangible cultural heritage, as it is performed and presented, that allows the past to live. And, by making the past live, we attempt to sustain our identity, or, as academics, we interpret differ... Read More about The Life and Death of Music as East Asian Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Korean Music : Definitions and Practices (2018)
Book Chapter
Howard, K. (2018). Korean Music : Definitions and Practices. In R. Strohm (Ed.), Studies on a Global History of Music (198-219). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315163970-10

For Keith Howard’s comprehensive survey of Korean music, categorisation and terminology are essential approaches, for example in setting two separate points of departure in the ‘Little’ and the ‘Great’ traditions. He then illustrates the practices an... Read More about Korean Music : Definitions and Practices.