PhD student research topics

Our PhD students are part of a thriving research community, participating in seminars and workshops to support their research and developing advanced, transferable skills. These attributes help our graduates succeed both within and beyond the course.

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Music Technology and Composition 

Alex Barker atbarker1@sheffield.ac.uk

In search of a musical language: Exploring the Tone Clock as an organising principle for the exploration of chromatic substructures, and their interaction with each other, and other continuities.

Supervisors: Dr Dorothy Ker, Professor Simon Keefe

Research interests

  • Chromatic organisation
  • Interaction of musical elements
  • Musical analysis
  • Tone Clock theory

Mario Cáceres micaceres1@sheffield.ac.uk

The electroacoustic song: Hybridisation of electroacoustic and popular music

Supervisors: Dr Adam Stanovic, Professor Adrian Moore

Research interests

  • Electroacoustic and popular music composition
  • Genre hybridisation
  • Form in electroacoustic and popular music

Lorenzo Pratilprati1@sheffield.ac.uk

Melting Buildings: reimagining architectural structures as musical systems

Supervisors: Professor Dorothy Ker, Dr David Buck, Professor Adrian Moore

www.lorenzoprati.com

Research interests

  • Music and Architecture
  • Sonic Interaction Design
  • Sonification
  • Installations
  • Electroacoustic composition

Thomas Stearn tfstearn1@sheffield.ac.uk

Exploring word painting in choral music through harmonic exploration: evoking emotion through assimilating music psychology research in composition

Supervisors: Professor Dorothy Ker, Professor Simon Keefe

Research interests

  • Word painting in choral music, from 16th century to present day - it’s progression and forms
  • Harmonic treatment and exploration in text settings 
  • Embodiment and Prediction in compositional practice

Evelyn Stroobach - estroobach1@sheffield.ac.uk

Holocaust - Remembrance: A multi-movement work for orchestra and SATB chorus

Supervisors: Professor Dorothy Ker, Professor Adrian Moore

Personal Website

Research interests

  • Composing a multi-movement work for orchestra and SATB chorus in response to the holocaust
  • Music with a Message: Exploring Antisemitism
  • Second-Generation Holocaust Survivors
  • Comparing, contrasting and critiquing my composition with other composers who have written orchestral works in response to the holocaust

James Thomas jthomas6@sheffield.ac.uk

Exploring approaches to temporal multiplicity through a portfolio of instrumental compositions

Supervisors: Professor Dorothy Ker, Dr Amir Konjani

Research interests

  • Exploring the juxtaposition of differing layers of time in compositional structures
  • The relationship between musical material and time
  • The ways in which rhythm, tempo, resonance, and acoustic space relate to our conception of musical time
  • The extensive exploration of limited material

Konstantinos Vlachos - kvlachos1@sheffield.ac.uk

The Use of Space in the Performance of Live Instrumental Music

Supervisors: Professor Dorothy Ker, Professor Adrian Moore

Research interests

  • Instrumental and vocal composition
  • Spatial Acoustic Music
  • Film Music
  • Improvisation

Ethnomusicology

Nicola Beazley - nbeazley1@sheffield.ac.uk

Interplays of tradition and acceptance in creative practices in contemporary, professional English folk tunes.

Supervisors: Dr Fay Hield, Dr Andrew Killick

http://nicolabeazley.weebly.com/

Research interests

  • Music for English Morris dance; the role of creativity, expression and constructs of 'tradition' in the contemporary English folk scene
  • A recital and composition project from the Full English Archive
  • Quebec Fiddle Styles

Saydyko Fedorova South - s.f.south@sheffield.ac.uk

The Sakha Khomus (Jew’s Harp) in the Past, Present & Future: Music, Identity and Resurgence

Supervisors: Dr Andrew Killick, Professor Simon Keegan-Phipps

https://udaganuniverse.com

Research interests

  • Khomus music in the past, present and in the future
  • Identity studies: an exploration of a national identity expressed through/within a musical instrument
  • Globalisation: transformation of folk music into pop and the other way around; influence of khomus music
  • Indigenous studies
  • Sakha music
  • Diaspora studies
  • Post-Soviet resurgence/revival of spiritual culture in native lands of the Russian Federation: the Republic of Sakha
  • Production of a notation system: overton instrument, khomus
  • Studies in shamanic practices. North Siberian studies
  • Digital ethnography
  • Music and beliefs

Helen Gubbins - hgubbins1@sheffield.ac.uk

The mediation of Irish traditional music in Irish public broadcasting radio, 1970-1994

Supervisors: Dr Simon Keegan-Phipps, Dr Andrew Killick

https://www.twitter.com/helengubbins

Research interests

  • Radio music broadcasting
  • Liveness, gender, and genre in broadcast music
  • Mediation and mediatisation of folk and traditional musics
  • The relationship(s) between music, language, national and local identity, and public radio
  • Broadcast archives
  • Performance practices in Irish traditional music

Tim Knowles - tknowles1@sheffield.ac.uk

Participation and Individuality at Sheffield's Public Participatory Music Events

Supervisors: Dr Simon Keegan-Phipps, Dr Andrew Killick

Research interests

  • Musical Participation
  • Social Theory
  • Cosmopolitanism
  • Community Music
  • Material Culture
  • Ethnography

Michael Walsh - mpwalsh1@sheffield.ac.uk

A celtic or national aesthetic? Flute playing in the contemporary Asturian Folk Scene.

Supervisors: Dr Simon Keegan-Phipps, Dr Fay Hield

www.michaelwalshmusic.com

Research interests

  • Nationalism and folk music
  • The use of the simple system transverse wooden flute in contemporary folk scenes
  • Asturian nationalism and identity
  • 'Celtic' Identity in the modern world
  • Post colonial and post imperialist theory
  • Hispanic studies and music
  • Irish in Britain

Anqi Wang awang17@sheffield.ac.uk
 

A Study on Organology: The “Gender Attribution” of the Development and Evolution of Ethnic groups' Jew's Harps in China

Supervisors: Dr Andrew Killick, Dr Fay Hield

https://mypublications.shef.ac.uk/userprofile.html?uid=33325&em=false

Research interests

  • Jew’s harp: an embryo of the instruments in the world
  • Gender and instruments
  • Traditional instruments
  • Folk music
  • Music community
  • Music history

Musicology 

James M Anderson - jmanderson2@sheffield.ac.uk

Music and Manuscript Circulation in Mozart’s Vienna (1780–92): Aspects of Chronology and Commercial Distribution

Supervisors: Professor Simon Keefe, Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh

Research interests

  • Mozart and contemporaries
  • Eighteenth-century music
  • Music copyists and commercial distribution
  • Manuscript and archival studies
  • Style, attribution, and authenticity
  • Late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music theory and counterpoint

Oliver Doyleojdoyle1@sheffield.ac.uk

Beyond the Courtier: Music and Lifestyle in Italy 1480-1530

Supervisors: Professor Tim Shephard, Dr Erin Maglaque

http://musicaantica.org.uk

Research interests

  • Performance Practice 1400-1650
  • Issues of gender and performance in 15th century Italy
  • Secular song repertory and culture in Italy, 1400-1530
  • The operas of Francesco Cavalli

Jiaoyang Ji - jji12@sheffield.ac.uk

China’s Adoption of the West’s Classical Music Tradition: The Receptions of Mozart, 1900-1976

Supervisor: Professor Simon Keefe

Research interests

  • Mozart reception in China
  • Aesthetics of Music
  • Archival studies
  • Mozart and contemporaries

Yiyun Liuyliu187@sheffield.ac.uk

George Frideric Handel and the consciousness of classics musical taste in eighteenth-century England

Supervisors: Professor Simon Keefe, Professor Tim Shephard

Research interests

  • English 'ancient music'
  • Handel's oratorio
  • Western early music

Ciara O'Flahertycaoflaherty1@sheffield.ac.uk

Sounding the Bookshelf 1501: Prose Verse and Narrative

Supervisors: Dr Tim Shephard, Dr Erin Maglaque

Research interests

  • Poetry and performance in Renaissance Italy
  • Courtesan musicianship in 16th century Italy
  • Female musicianship in the late Renaissance and Baroque Eras
  • Female Composers in the late Renaissance and Baroque Eras

Performance

Xinyi Liangxliang14@sheffield.ac.uk

Piano Transcriptions of Chinese Traditional Music from the Cultural Revolution Period

Supervisors: Dr Andrew Killick, Professor Simon Keefe

Research interests

  • Connection between politics and music
  • Traditional Chinese music
  • Chinese piano music
  • Piano performance

Danqing Wudwu27@sheffield.ac.uk

Cello Repertoire and Performance Practice in Modena under Francesco II d’Este

Supervisors: Dr Tim Shephard, Dr Sarah K Watts

Research interests

  • Baroque music
  • Baroque cello
  • Cello performance
  • Critical edition
  • Performance practice of Baroque music

Psychology of Music

 
Hongjuan Zhuhzhu32@sheffield.ac.uk
 
A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Parental Attitudes Towards Children's Musical Instrument Learning: Impact on Children's Music Learning Motivation
 
Supervisors: Professor Stephanie E Pitts, Dr Sarah K Watts
 
Research interests
  • Music Education
  • Music Pedagogy
  • Music and Emotion
  • Music Health and Wellbeing
  • Children and Young People's Development
  • Student Behaviour
Emily Cooper - ecooper7@sheffield.ac.uk

Are you a singer? Facilitating the use of voice for people with respiratory conditions through singing and choir participation.

Supervisors: Professor Renee Timmers, Dr Michael Bonshor 

Research interests

  • Singing and Health
  • Music and Wellbeing
  • Community Singing Projects
  • Singing and Respiratory Health
  • Music and Social Bonding

Rory Kirk - rjdkirk1@sheffield.ac.uk

A musical bio-feedback loop to facilitate sleep

Supervisors: Professor Renee Timmers, Professor George Panoutsos, Dr Maan van de Werken

Research interests

  • Music and sleep
  • Music and health
  • Chronobiology
  • Physiological responses to music

Marco Morbidelli mmorbidelli1@sheffield.ac.uk

The experience of authenticity and the integration of skills in the training of the musical theatre performer.

Supervisors: Professor Renee Timmers, Dr Carmen Levick

Research interests

  • Singing technique
  • Acting through song
  • Performing arts training in Higher Education
  • Self-expression and self-development
  • Social agency and change through theatre practice and training

Kexin Qikqi1@sheffield.ac.uk

Uses of visual imagery in music performance

Supervisors: Professor Renee Timmers, Professor Stephanie Pitts

Research interests

  • Piano performance expression 
  • Music cognition and imagery
  • Music communication between pianists and listeners
  • Music performance anxiety
  • Visual imagery training in music education

Emma Risley - emrisley1@sheffield.ac.uk

Eight shows a week: investigating the psychological and physical impacts of participation in musical theatre

Supervisors: Professor Stephanie Pitts, Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh

Research interests

  • Musical theatre performance on and under the stage
  • Music and wellbeing
  • Culture and inequalities
  • Rehearsal and performance processes of musical theatre

Thomas Jacob Spurgintjspurgin1@sheffield.ac.uk

The 'crisis' in classical music: exploring alternatives in audience development

Supervisors: Professor Stephanie Pitts, Professor Karen Burland, Adam Szabo

Research interests

  • Audience studies
  • Cultural Policy
  • Equality
  • Diversity and Representation in Music
  • Musician Training; Orchestral Management

Jonathan (Jaytee) Tangjwltang1@sheffield.ac.uk

The Role of Self-Construal in Affective Experiences with Music

Supervisors: Professor Nicola Dibben, Professor Renee Timmers

Research interests

  • Music and cultural identity
  • Culture and affective experiences in music
  • Music therapy and music as therapy
  • Diversity, equity and inclusion in music and music therapy

Persefoni Tzanaki ptzanaki1@sheffield.ac.uk

Empathy and interpersonal synchronisation as reciprocal processes in interactions between musical novices.

Supervisors: Professor Renee Timmers, Professor Nikki Dibben, Dr Jenni MacRitchie 

Research interests

  • Musical interactions in children and adult musical novices
  • Socio-psychological factors affecting interpersonal synchronisation
  • Interpersonal synchrony and social development in children
  • Music and well-being; music-supported therapy

Kate Warehamkwareham1@sheffield.ac.uk

Music listening and its mediation of social interaction amongst emerging adults in non-traditional environments

Supervisors: Professor Nicola Dibben, Professor Helen Kennedy

www.onanoisycorner.com

Research interests

  • Music in everyday life
  • Music listening
  • Homeless young people
  • Emerging adulthood
  • Social interaction and identity in music

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