Ethnomusicology Conference, Indiana 2026

It was a pleasure to attend the recent Society for Ethnomusicology conference at Indiana University (USA), where I also very much enjoyed meeting some of the most influential scholars in the field of sound archiving. I won’t mention names here, but a photo is attached below.

At the SEM conference, I had multiple activities: (1) led the Historical Ethnomusicology Section meeting, (2) gave a brief report on that Section to the SEM Council, (3) presented a paper on how philosophy of education can better guide the teaching of world music, and (4) met with leaders of IU’s world-renowned sound archives to explore collaboration, especially pertaining to our plans to develop a MUSIC Center of Research Excellence and related major grant applications in Norway. If funded, such projects would support several postdoctoral researchers and PhD students. 

We also made further progress on planning a promising online symposium for public outreach, Rethinking Comparative Musicology, that had been sidelined a few times due to coordination challenges. I will announce details on that event here soon, likely in late January 2027.

China in October 2026

In October 2026 it was a great pleasure to collaborate in grant writing and research design with postdocs and colleagues at the Education University of Hong Kong, and also to give a keynote speech for the Second International Symposium on AI+ Music Education, while also doing a few guest lectures for some notable universities in mainland China.

Chinese readers can click here (BNU, BLCU, UPC, and GNU) for further details.

Below are photos.

Publications and Postgraduates in Uganda

Two more music Master students have conditionally passed their examinations, and after completing revisions will soon be able to graduate with their Master degrees in Music from Kyambogo University, Uganda. CONGRATULATIONS!! 

It was a pleasure to work with both Vincent Muhindo and Hellen Hasahya through the CABUTE project, funded by the Norwegian government's NORHED program.

Additionally, the CABUTE project’s music PhD graduate, Erisa Walubo, will soon publish another co-authored article, this time in the International Journal of Music Education.

Below are Dr. Erisa Walubo’s two major publications:

• Walubo, E., Johnson, D. T., & Hebert, D. G. (accepted for publication, 2026). Decolonisation of musical arts education in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania: A scoping review. International Journal of Music Education.

• Walubo, E. & Hebert, D. G. (2026). Epistemic decolonization of musical arts education: Analysis and recommendations from Uganda. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 34(1), 42-63.   https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/988395/summary

 

AI+ Music Education II

It was a great pleasure to participate in the Second International Symposium on AI+Music Education, held in beautiful Xiamen, China, at Jimei University. I gave one of the invited keynote speeches along with notable invitees such as Alex Ruthmann and Bo-wah Leung. Click HERE to learn more about this event. 

In addition to our keynotes, there were over 150 presentations at this event, with 85 in just one of the three major conference themes.

China is certainly leading the world when it comes to research and development of Music AI (particularly in relation to education), and it was exciting to see so many presentations expressing a sensible balance of both excitement about the possibilities and concern regarding the artistic and educational risks of AI.

The discussion was very thought provoking and reached some important points of consensus on how arts educators can properly respond to revolutionary technologies.   

Next year this event will be held at Beijing Language and Culture University.

 

Book Review: AI and Music Education

A quite informative review of our recent book A New Philosophy of Music Education for the Era of AI (Routledge, 2026) has now been published by Cambridge University Press in the British Journal of Music Education. 

Click here to access: 
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265051726101107

According to its author, Associate Professor Lee Cheng, “the philosophical foundations, values and purposes of music education in an environment increasingly shaped by AI remain underexplored. A New Philosophy of Music Education for the Era of AI addresses this gap by exploring how music education can help individuals achieve self-discovery in this transformative era (...) the book offers a timely philosophical intervention at a moment when people are increasingly embracing and relying on AI without critically reflecting on its broader implications for humanity or how society may be transformed by its growing presence. This book is a call for music educators to look beyond what AI can do and reconsider what it means to be human through music education.”

Click HERE to see reviews of my previous books. 

 

Inequalities in Higher Education and the Arts

Each year, more than 100 PhD students from universities around the world come to Bergen, Norway for its Bergen Summer Research School (BSRS), where during a brief residency they gain valuable new perspectives with interdisciplinary insights.

The theme of the 2027 BSRS is Moral Economies, and it will be held on 7-17 June, 2027. I look forward to teaching its PhD course Inequalities in Higher Education and the Arts. Click HERE for the course description. 

More information about the BSRS application process is on the Bergen Summer Research School website, and the application deadline is at the end of January 2027. We anticipate strong interest in this course and look forward to seeing who is accepted and what develops from our global collaborations.

 

Chinese Translations

Recently there are several publications—in Chinese language translation—of various music R&D projects that I have been working on. Chinese is certainly one of the most important languages, with around 1.4 billion people, or 17% of the world’s population speaking Chinese as a native language, so it is exciting to be directly reaching these readers in an approachable and inclusive way.

 

Pictured here is the Chinese translation of our book Teaching World Music in Higher Education (World Music Pedagogy, vol.7), and a very impressive translation of Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology was also published just a few years ago.

 

I also had the opportunity to assist in development of a Chinese-English bilingual book called English Coursebook on Chinese Music, led by Dr. Zijin Yao of Beijing Language and Culture University, which offers a very approachable overview (for students) of all aspects of Chinese music tradition in both Chinese and English languages.

 

Most recently, the following chapter was translated, to be published very soon in Chinese language:

·       Hebert, D. G. (2026, submitted/forthcoming). Music, Diplomacy, and Intercultural Understanding (translated into Chinese). In C.-H. Leung (Ed.), Proceedings of International Conference on One Belt One Road Arts and Culture 2025. Hong Kong: Sino United Publishing/Chung Hwa Book Co.  

And here are selected reviews in Chinese language:

·       ----Click HERE for a review of our book A New Philosophy of Music Education for the Era of AI (Routledge, 2026).

·       ----Click HERE for discussions in Chinese surrounding the translation of Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology.

·       ----Click HERE to access Chinese language discussion of one of my conference speeches.

·       ----Click HERE to access records from one of my many keynote speeches in China.