Job: PhD Position in Global Rap Performance (Groningen)

Deadline: 22 September 2024
For full details, please visit the University of Groningen website.
And for questions regarding the submission procedure, please contact Merel Lobo: m.s.lobo[at]rug[dot]nl.

Job description
Project: Global rap performance: exploring linguistic and musical diversity in rap cultures and practices across the globe

Ever since hip-hop’s inception, rap has become one of the most popular and influential forms of music worldwide. As it spread around the world, the art of rap interacted with and was affected by a variety of regional dialects, languages, and musical cultures, resulting in distinct rap cultures and practices across the globe (e.g., West Coast gangsta rap, UK grime, reggaeton, baile funk, Nederhop).

This project aims to elucidate how rap in its various forms relates to linguistic and musical diversity. It explores the ways in which rap cultures move, migrate and manifest new approaches to MCing and its (live) performance, thinking through how (minority) languages and local musical histories affect creative output. Performance is a central theme, and the PhD candidate will explore how tenets of Black Atlantic practice (such as antiphony) are re-performed or re-worked depending on context.

Candidates will be expected to have a Master’s degree in an appropriate discipline (e.g., linguistics, musicology, cultural studies, anthropology), and have existing research interest – and ideally practitioner’s experience – on rap cultures, broadly speaking. Additionally, candidates are expected to have an affinity for multidisciplinarity and a desire to work on the intersection of musicology and linguistics. Furthermore, applicants from global majority backgrounds are especially recommended to apply.