School of Arts
Tom Peterson
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Key information

Key information
- Department
- School of Arts
- Qualifications
- MMus, Ethnomusicology. SOAS, University of London
- Email address
- 656021@soas.ac.uk
- Thesis title
- The Lyric in Lanka: Histories of Song in the Sinhala Sphere through the Hugh Nevill Collection
- Internal Supervisors
- Dr Richard Williams
Biography
Building on the work of Gary Tomlinson, Ana María Ochoa Gautier, and Jonathan Sterne, Tom's research concerns vocal genres that exist in the interstices of Enlightenment-era regiments of aesthetics.
With a focus on Sri Lanka and South Asia more broadly, his research explores practices and histories relating to vocal genres and the interconnections and comparisons between them.
Tom is also interested in tying historical forms together with contemporary practices. His broader research does this through studies of Buddhist chant, while his doctoral thesis and future research projects follow this method with forms of song from Sri Lanka.
Research interests
South Asia, ethnomusicology, history, vocal genres, collecting, colonialism.