Scholarship: Phd Ethnomusicology. Project: SoundDecisions - Musical Listening, Decision Making, And Equitable Development in The Mekong Delta (University of Birmingham) Deadline: 26.08.2025
SoundDecisions - Musical Listening, Decision Making, And Equitable Development in The Mekong Delta
Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
For further information about the application process, visit the university website.
About the Project
Project description:
Music is the mediator par excellence of effective decision-making. Using the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam as a case study, the ERC-selected and UKRI-funded project SoundDecisions applies an interdisciplinary approach and mixed methodologies to prove the bold claim that music performance enables farmers and other workers to listen to their surroundings and think through innovative solutions to immediate environmental and economic challenges. Both Khmer Krom and Vietnamese peoples who inhabit the Mekong Delta face climate change catastrophe from increased salinisation, reduced freshwater runoff, and intrusive sand mining. Together, they use improvised music to shape how they think about farming, trade, and other economic activities. Furthermore, by connecting with diasporic musicians via global telecommunication systems, they co-curate dynamic forms of musical listening and thinking to build trust, experiment with new solutions to environmental issues, and cultivate choice. These musicians reshape development of the region; and yet, since development emerges from a cultural basis rather than an economic one, their work has not yet been recognised. How do cultural changes forged by musicians at the intersection of the region’s rich natural and cultural resources enable new socio-economic development? What new forms of sustainability might arise from their grassroots attempts to establish new methods of co-existence given climate change realities? Led by the Principal Investigator Prof Alexander M. Cannon, SoundDecisions undertakes a major programme of archival, ethnographic, and econometric research across three continents to answer these questions.
The SoundDecisions team seeks to hire its second PhD student, who will be an aspiring music scholar with an interest in ecological ethnomusicology or a related field. Working closely with the PI, the PhD student will study the interactions between humans and nature, which are enabled through music and the passing of musical knowledge from older to younger generations of musicians. With funding from the SoundDecisions grant, the student will undertake ethnographic fieldwork in the Mekong Delta with Vietnamese and Khmer Krom musical communities. Fieldwork might include interviews with musicians, visits to local organisations, and taking music lessons. Concurrently, the student will identify and engage with local literary groups and speak with environmental historians to better understand the ways that humans have drawn on the environment for sustenance and cultural metaphors, and how these have impacted music practice. The fieldwork locations will be determined in consultation with the PI and may include Cần Thơ, Vĩnh Long, Sóc Trăng, Bến Tre, and elsewhere.
It is expected that the student will start this PhD in January 2026.
The student may undertake this study in Birmingham or as a distance-learning student. If the student is a distance learning student, they will be expected to attend a one-week residential course held in January 2026. Their economy flights and accommodation will be paid for through fees and at no extra cost.
Eligibility criteria and entry requirements:
Masters degree in music, anthropology, sociology, or a related discipline
Language proficiencies in French, Vietnamese and/or Khmer
Experience in methods of ethnographic fieldwork
How to apply:
Prospective applicants are required to apply by sending in:
A cover letter (this should set out your reasons for applying for the scholarship and why you are suited to the research proposed)
A CV (include the names and contact details of two referees at the end of the CV)
Research proposal that indicates ways of contributing to the SoundDecisions project within the parameters outlined above. Please include a review of relevant literature; suggest specific research questions and appropriate research methods to answer these questions; and offer potential contributions to music studies and other relevant disciplines.
Transcript of grades
These documents should be sent to: calpg-research[at]contacts[dot]bham[dot]ac[dot]uk by 26th August 2025
Funding Notes
PhD funded entirely though SoundDecisions - Musical Listening, Decision Making, and Equitable Development in the Mekong Delta, a UKRI Horizon Europe Underwriting funded project.
The studentship will cover tuition fees and provide a stipend. Funds from the project will also cover fieldwork research and some conference travel.