Co-Chair, Senior Lecturer in Global Creative and Cultural Industries
Member
- Name:
- Dr Caspar Melville
- Email address:
- cm54@soas.ac.uk
- Telephone:
- +44 (0)20 7898 4249
- Address:
- SOAS University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
- Building:
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Office No:
- 405
- Academic Support Hours:
- Wednesdays 11-1
Biography
I was born and raised in London, and started my career as a music journalist, writing for the independent black music press – Blues & Soul, Touch, Urb and Jazzid – and freelancing for other publications such as The Village Voice and The Sunday Telegraph. I spent eight years living in San Francisco in the 1990s, during which time I worked a columnist, DJ, radio presenter and club promoter, and helped start a short-lived jazz magazine, On The One. Back in London I worked as Media Editor and then Executive Editor at the online journal openDemocracy for five years. Before joining SOAS, in September 2013, I worked for eight years for the charity the Rationalist Association, where I was the editor of New Humanist magazine and the charity’s chief executive. My first book Taking Offence (Seagull books/Index on Censorship) was published in 2009.
I have a BA in American Studies (Literature) from Sussex University and an MA and PhD in Media and Communications from Goldsmiths College, University of London. My thesis – London Underground The Multicultural Routes of London’s Dance Music Cultures – explored issues of race, space identity and belonging in the interracial clubs of London, 1965-1998.
Listen to Caspar discussing his research on SOAS Radio.
My main research interests include
- Afro-diasporic popular music: The production, consumption and circulation of “black” music (music of African origin), generic change, music in everyday life, dance and antiphony, The Black Atlantic, circum-Atlantic creative practice
- The history and cartography of genre: jazz, hip hop, Jungle, Grime
- The distinct artistic practices of the city, London in particular
- Ideologies of race and identity
- The history and future of cultural studies and critical theory
- Post-digital media - in particular issues of ownership, work and ideologies of utopia
A secondary area of interest involves the philosophical utility of reason, the scientific method, contemporary religion and non-religion, and free speech and offence. I recently authored a book about the history of dance music cultures in London, 1980-2000, called It's a London Thing: How Rare Groove, Acid House and Jungle Remapped the City (2019). The book is now available from Manchester University Press.
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Caspar Melville book talk on YouTube
I am also a researcher on Bass Culture, a 3-year AHRC-funded research project on the history and impact of Jamaican music (reggae and its many offshoots) in the UK. Research outputs will include a major exhibition, film and online resource. I will be contributing a monograph scheduled for publication in 2019.
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Available for
Regional Expertise
Country Expertise
Languages
Melville, Caspar (2019) It's A London Thing: How Rare Groove, Acid House and Jungle Remapped The City. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Melville, Caspar (2017) 'Valuing Tradition: Mali’s jeliw, European publishers and Copyright'. Journal of World Popular Music, (4) 1, pp 10-44.
Melville, Caspar (2014) 'The Politics of Everyday life: Why We Still Need Cultural Studies'. New Humanist magazine, (118) 3.
Melville, Caspar (2017) 'Process as Outcome: Research Across Borders'. In: Shiach, Morag and Virani, Tarek, (eds.), Cultural Policy, Innovation and the Creative Economy: Creative Collaborations in Arts and Humanities Research. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 179-188.
Melville, Caspar (2015) 'Strange Routes: "Dancing Girl": Flows, Formats and Fortune in Music.'. In: Harris, Rachel and Pease, Rowan, (eds.), Pieces of the Musical World: Sounds and Cultures. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, pp 209-226.
This list was last generated on Wednesday, 29th June 2022, 23:59 Europe/London.