Tom Western is a music researcher and ethnographer,
whose work explores the relations between sound, borders, displacements
and citizenships. He has worked in Greece since 2016 on a number of
collaborative humanitarian and activist projects.
As a core team member of the Syrian and Greek Youth
Forum, a citizens group based in Athens, Tom co-founded the Active
Citizens Sound Archive, which contains recordings of political inclusion
activities: songs and speeches; performances and protests; everyday
activisms. He ran music workshops at a refugee community centre
throughout 2017, and continues to play music with various ensembles of
musicians from Syria, Greece, and all around the Eastern Mediterranean,
performing at events across Greece.
Since joining the University of Oslo in 2019, Tom
is furthering his work on sonic citizenship. This year he is producing a
six-part radio series called ‘Don't Call Us Refugees!’ and has been
selected as a resident artist in the Onassis Cultural Foundation project
‘The City Talks Back’. He has several articles and book chapters
forthcoming in 2020. His first book, National Phonography, based on his
Edinburgh doctoral research project, is coming out in 2021.
Edinburgh education: PhD Music, 2015. MMus Musicology, 2010.
Current position: Marie Curie Research Fellow, Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo.