Simpson-Litke’s current research explores rhythmic interactions between music and dance, focusing on the Latin social dances she has taught and performed for over 20 years. Her salsa research is published in Music Theory Spectrum, the Journal of Music Theory (for which she was awarded the 2020-21 David Kraehenbuehl Prize) and the forthcoming edited collection Making Music Together (Oxford University Press). She has also published on tango in The Cambridge Companion to Tango.

Simpson-Litke’s RITMO lecture is titled “Shifting Temporal Spaces: Exploring (Hyper)Metric Interactions Between Music and Dance in Salsa.” While salsa takes many forms within individual dancing communities, two fundamental styles have developed and spread worldwide—“On-1” and “On-2”—so-named after the metric location of changes in direction in the basic dance step. Practitioners note the differing movement qualities and debate the artistic merits of each style. Dr. Simpson-Litke’s lecture will address the question of why these styles produce such contrasting effects—a question that has not yet been sufficiently addressed.

The lecture will be streamed live, starting at 7:15am on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. See the following for more information: https://www.uio.no/ritmo/english/news-and-events/events/ritmo-seminar-series/2025/simpson-litke/

Central to Fey’s research last summer were the concepts of exoticism and nostalgia and how they manifest in City Pop. Fey analysed the complexities of exoticism and globalisation in music, showing how City Pop is part of a broader global conversation that challenges traditional notions of cultural otherness. As she points out, “City Pop incorporates Western musical styles such as jazz fusion and funk, reinterpreting them through a Japanese lens.” This fusion creates a form of musical exoticism where the genre is simultaneously familiar and distinct, offering Western listeners a taste of Japanese culture without presenting it as an entirely foreign or stereotypical “other.” For Western listeners, the exoticism of City Pop, with its blend of Western styles and Japanese aesthetics, offers an exoticized and nostalgic fantasy of Tokyo’s cosmopolitan lifestyle. This dynamic highlights how City Pop’s appeal extends beyond traditional notions of exoticism, embracing a more fluid and interconnected approach to cultural exchange.

Fey’s examination of the evocation of nostalgia in this genre involved a close reading of musical characteristics of Miki Matsubara’s 1979 hit Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me), including elements of production, as well as the impact of modern technology on the global resurgence of City Pop, and this song in particular. The use of the internet and social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok has played a crucial role in reintroducing City Pop to new audiences worldwide. Fey states, “The viral spread of Miki Matsubara’s Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me) and other City Pop classics illustrates how these platforms facilitate cultural exchange and appreciation.” This resurgence reflects a broader trend of globalisation where cultural products are not merely exoticized but interpreted and integrated into a global musical landscape. Matsubara’s 1979 hit conveys a shared nostalgia that is not merely personal but collective, tied to a period of optimism and global engagement in Japan’s history.

Fey is currently expanding her research on City Pop into a longer Special Topics Paper as part of the requirements for her B.Mus. in Music History.

Interested in the URA? The deadline is February 17, 2025:

Students apply to be mentored for 16 weeks (full-time from May through August) by a professor of their choice. This is a competitive award. Some of the award highlights are as follows:

• Up to 205 URAs are available across all disciplines at UM, plus two (2) additional awards for community-based projects (supported by SSHRC).
• A minimum of 21 URAs are available for students who self-declare as Indigenous.
• The award carries a monetary value of $7000.
• The award is a recognized UM Co-Curricular Record activity.
• For more information please see: https://umanitoba.ca/research/opportunities-support/undergraduate-research-awards

From enhancing cultural awareness in mental health for Indigenous populations, to applying lessons from Greek antiquity to modern democracies, to preserving the music and language of underrepresented groups, the winners of this year’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s (SSHRC) Impact Awards are shaping Canadian society in lasting ways.

Today, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced the recipients of SSHRC’s 2024 Impact Awards. These awards are SSHRC’s highest honours, recognizing outstanding Canadian researchers and their achievements, research training, knowledge mobilization and outreach activities funded partially or entirely by SSHRC. The awards also highlight SSHRC’s commitment to funding research that drives change and fosters a deeper understanding of our shared human experience. The five winning scholars will receive a combined total of $300,000 to continue their groundbreaking work.

Marcia Ostashewski, from Cape Breton University, is recognized with the Connection Award for her interdisciplinary and collaborative work advancing decolonization within the music industry, and providing a framework for recording the music and cultures of underrepresented groups. The Connection Award recognizes an outstanding initiative that facilitates the exchange of research knowledge within or beyond the social sciences and humanities community to generate intellectual, cultural, social or economic impacts. Her team is made up of Afua Cooper, Laurianne Sylvester, Graham Marshall, Shauna MacDonald, and Jody Stark from the Desautels Faculty of Music.

Read the full press release here.

-Prairie Town by R. Bachman

Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, and Neil Young famously grew up in Winnipeg, a mid-sized Canadian city in Treaty 1 territory with a burgeoning arts scene. Contemporary Winnipeg is home to a multitude of musicians of all genres, and the city is not only culturally diverse, but also boasts the highest per capita urban Indigenous population of any Canadian city.

In spite of the tremendous musical and cultural diversity in this place, music education in Winnipeg schools tends to be relatively uniform. School music offerings are performance-oriented and consist mainly of concert band, choir, instrumental jazz, and guitar programs in senior high contexts, and general music, instrumental, or choral programs for younger grades. While students in Winnipeg schools reflect the musical and cultural diversity of the city, music teachers generally do not. The majority of music educators are of European descent and have completed a Bachelor of Music degree during which they engaged in private classical or jazz instrumental or voice study and participated in similar ensembles to the ones they now teach in schools. Music teachers’ remarkably uniform experiences as music learners and music teacher candidates result in the reproduction of a Euro-derived pedagogy focused on the performance of specific musical work rather than allowing students to create their own music or to engage with the musical practices of local musicians.

Desautels Faculty of Music associate professor Dr. Jody Stark wants to do something about this situation. Stark has received over $60 000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to develop and pilot a local music pedagogy that responds to and incorporates various ways people make and enjoy music in Winnipeg, Canada. Stark plans to engage in a collaborative research project with a group of music educators and community collaborators including local Indigenous and settler musicians and representatives of various local cultural institutions and organizations. Together, the group will create and test out a decolonizing pedagogical framework for local music education on the land, and with the popular, contemporary, and traditional musics, of Treaty 1 territory..

Stark notes, “Through the process of doing this research, out team will have the chance to think about how to ethically bring diverse musical practices and musicians into the Winnipeg music classroom, but also to notice and explore the barriers to decolonizing and Indigenizing music education. Schools are colonial social structures with often invisible assumptions about teaching, learning, people, and the world, and this makes change challenging. By developing and piloting a framework for a local music pedagogy, our team will not only explore how best to undertake school-community musical partnerships, but we will also have the chance to notice and wrestle with some of these challenges.”

The results of this innovative project will allow the research team to contribute to the knowledge base of music teachers, university-level music teachers and teacher educators, policy makers in schools and community arts organizations, and artists seeking to engage youth and children. Plans are underway to offer in-person and online workshops, articles for music educators, community musicians and music education researchers, and for the team to create a podcast for other music educators interested in exploring a local approach to their teaching.