Sociomusicology: August 2025

8/20/25

Decolonization of Musical Arts Education

It was a pleasure to learn just a few days ago that an article co-authored with my PhD student Erisa Walubo has been accepted by the journal Philosophy of Music Education Review. We expect it to be published sometime in the next six months.

The article offers a novel philosophical analysis of differing views on the notion of decolonization and how it can be applied to music education, or what is called “musical arts” education in much of Africa (since there it often entails the integration of singing, drumming, dancing, story-telling, and other practices).

Erisa Walubo is now revising what promises to be a strong PhD dissertation on Indigenous music and dance practices in Ugandan education, and has other interesting research articles in various stages of writing. Our collaboration, and Erisa’s doctoral studies, are sponsored by the CABUTE project, which also has many other publications under development, including by our postdoctoral researchers in music education James Isabirye and Milton Wabyona.

We eagerly look forward to seeing what the entire team will accomplish through the CABUTE project and the long-term impacts that their work will have for the improvement of education in Uganda.

Congratulations to Erisa and the entire CABUTE team!

8/10/25

Keynote Speech in China

I look forward to giving a keynote speech on Music Diplomacy for a major event in September 2025 at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. Some of my favorite music scholars will be there.

Click HERE for details.

8/6/25

Fieldwork Begins in Sapmi

It is exciting to be visiting Sapmi, the Sami homeland in the far north of the Nordic countries, for research on the Sami joik and singing practices. The Sapmi Singing Map project is probably the largest research project ever on Sami singing, involving a team of researchers (interdisciplinary, both Sami and non-Sami) across the next four years, with the purpose of not only documenting the joik but also developing research-based and culturally appropriate educational resources.

As part of the first phase of fieldwork, the team is visiting Kautokeino, Maze, and Øksfjord to interview and film notable joikers from diverse localities and generations. Yesterday we also crossed the Finnish border, filming the local nature and wildlife to help show the context of this heritage. There will be several more visits across the coming years, in different seasons, to help us better understand how to meaningfully describe this remarkable land and its unique people.

Welcome to Sociomusicology

For nearly 20 years (since 2007), this website has offered musings on contemporary society and its music by David G. Hebert, PhD. He is a sociomusicologist specializing in global music education who has held academic positions with universities on five continents. Dr. Hebert is now a tenured full Professor with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen. There he leads the Grieg Academy Music Education (GAME) research group and manages the multinational government-funded Nordic Network for Music Education, which organizes annual intensive Master courses and exchange of teachers and students across eight countries. He is also an Affiliated Professor with both University of the Faroe Islands and Kyambogo University (Uganda), and an Honorary Professor in China with the Education University of Hong Kong.

Professor Hebert's research applies an international-comparative perspective to issues of pluralism, identity, and cultural relevance in music education, as well as processes by which new music traditions emerge and change - both sonically and socially - as they are adopted into institutions. Born in the 1970s, he is among the most widely-published and globally-active music scholars of his generation (h-index:21), with professional activities in an average of 8 countries per year across the past decade (2008-2020).