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Thomas Pooley

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Associate Professor and Chair of Department: Art and Music, University of South Africa

Thomas Pooley is an Associate Professor of music, and Chair of the Department of Art and Music at the University of South Africa. He earned a Masters from Wits and a PhD in musicology from the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas is Co-editor of "Muziki, Journal of Music Research in Africa."

Thomas has published on Zulu music, dance, and praise poetry; on speech tone and melody in sub-Saharan Africa; and on poverty, inequality, and musical arts education in post-apartheid South Africa. Current projects include a study on the life and works of composer-linguist Professor JS Mzilikazi Khumalo, and a study of politics and tradition in Zulu performances. The work on Prof Khumalo is part of a broader project on Africanist art music during and after South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy.

He is presently working with Professor Naomi Andre (University of Michigan), Professor Innocentia Mhlambi (Wits), and Dr Donato Somma (Wits) to document the intellectual legacy of Professor Khumalo.

Experience

  • 2013–present
    Associate professor, University of South Africa

Education

  • 2014 
    University of Pennsylvania, Doctor of Philosophy in Music
  • 2009 
    University of the Witwatersrand, Master of Music
  • 2005 
    University of KwaZulu-Natal, Bachelor of Arts Honours
  • 2004 
    University of KwaZulu-Natal, Bachelor of Arts Music

Publications

  • 2021
    African performance arts and political action, The phenomenology of collapsing worlds: Territorialising space in isishameni Zulu dance
  • 2020
    The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing, Volume 1: Development, Linguistic tone and melody in the singing of sub-Saharan Africa
  • 2020
    The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing, Volume 3: Wellbeing, Initiation Songs as Intergenerational Communication: The Zulu uMemulo and Initiation Schools in Southern Africa
  • 2020
    The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing, Volume 2: Education, Singing in South African Schools
  • 2019
    Moreana, Thomas More's silence and the ethics of conscience
  • 2018
    African Music, Continental Musicology: Decolonising the myth of a singular 'African music'
  • 2018
    Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan, 'Depressing melodies': Consonants and tone in Zulu song
  • 2016
    Critical Arts, 'Extracurricular arts': Poverty, inequality, and indigenous musical arts education in post-apartheid South Africa
  • 2016
    African Music, "Umaskandi izibongo": Semantic, prosodic, and musical dimensions of voice in Zulu popular praises
  • 2013
    Actualites des Universaux en Musique/Topics in Universals in Music, 'Dismantling Music': Reductionist models and evolutionary explanations in music cognition
  • 2010
    South African Music Studies, 'Never the twain shall meet': Africanist art music and the end of apartheid

Grants and Contracts

  • 2018
    African Heritage Initiative Grant
    Role:
    Co-Principal Investigator
    Funding Source:
    The Center for Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan

Professional Memberships

  • Society for Ethnomusicology
  • Society for Music Perception and Cognition