Photo: Emma Suominen
Kim Ramstedt
I am assistant professor in musicology at the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University, where I instruct students on ethnographic research methods, (ethnographic) writing, music and culture, coloniality, race, and its intersections with other social categories. My research has revolved around the mediation of music from a performance and cultural studies perspective.
Currently, I am exploring the dynamics of race and ethnicity in musical encounters in the research project “Music scholars in society: Advancing social justice through activist music research” (Kone Foundation 2020-2025). My research investigates how music scholarship and media in Europe has addressed the category of race and how this body of knowledge is equipped to deal with the systematic and structural injustices of racism. I am also conducting autoethnographic research as a white DJ involved in the African club scene in Finland, where I investigate the challenges involved in addressing racism in a club context. The aim of this research is to find ways of implementing principles of anti-racist activism in the methods and pedagogics of music studies.
Reflexivity and disclosure of positionality are essential both in my research and in my teaching. As a white non-disabled cis-male studying systems of oppression, I acknowledge that I have no experiential knowledge on the topic. Rather than analyzing and possibly contributing to the normalization of the damage and distress caused by structures that I benefit from, my work interrogates privilege and how it not only creates injustice, but often works to obstruct any efforts of dismantling it. I identify as an activist scholar and aspire to use my academic position and the resources it provides me for action and work towards social justice.