research

My research and teaching specializations are the cultural histories of contemporary music and multimedia industries, with a focus on the Philippines and the US.

My current book project Pop Convergence (under contract with Oxford University Press) examines musical flows and networks in contemporary Manila. Through a combination of archival research, musical analysis, and ethnographic fieldwork, I explore how the Philippine mainstream entertainment industry has bestowed on audiences assurances of cultural and social authority.

Another major project, Listening to Caregiving, engages with global narratives of migration, cultural memory, archiving, and the digital mapping of sonic experiences of Filipino domestic workers in select international locations. I launched the project at Princeton’s Migration and Humanities Lab, led by Sandra Bermann. My exploration has continued with the support of a Faculty Fellowship with the Humanities Institute at UT Austin (2022-2024).

I’ve taught classes and supervised projects on musicology, ethnomusicology, sound studies, multimedia research methods, global culture industries, digital technologies, and audio/visual production.

My PhD dissertation was funded by a Cambridge International Scholarship and supervised by Nicholas Cook, Matthew Machin-Autenrieth, and David Trippett. My work has additionally been supported by grants awarded by Cambridge Trust, Santander, American Musicological Society, Peterhouse Cambridge, Music & Letters Trust, Princeton University, The New School, and UT Austin.

 

publications

© Clement Price-Thomas

Articulating Media: Genealogy, Interface, Situation, book collection co-edited with Nathaniel Zetter, for the Technographies series of Open Humanities Press, 2023.

“Radyo Tanudan: Sonic Collectivities in a Philippine Village,” chapter for the Routledge Companion to Radio and Podcast Studies, edited by Mia Lindgren and Jason Loviglio, Routledge, 2022.

“Stepping onto the Pop Dance Floor,” American Music Perspectives, 1/2 (Dec 2021), 201-210.

Rak en Rol: The Influence of Psychedelic Culture in Philippine Music,” Rock Music Studies, special issue on Global Psychedelia and Counterculture, edited by Kevin Moist, 5/3 (Sep 2018), 257-274.

“The Sound and Spectacle of Philippine Presidential Elections, 1953-1998,” Musical Quarterly, 100/3-4 (Jul 2018), 297-339.

“The Rapper Is Present: Sound Art, Liveness, and the Negotiation of Identity in Jay Z’s ‘Picasso Baby’,” Journal of Popular Music Studies, 29/1 (Mar 2017).

“The Ballad of ‘Grandmaster PH’: Contesting Narratives and Lost Archives in Philippine Hip-Hop,” chapter for Hip-Hop Archives: The Politics and Poetics of Knowledge Production, edited by Mark V. Campbell and Murray Forman, Intellect Books, forthcoming.

“Turn to Kitsch: Eat Bulaga! and the Arrangement of Musical Humor in Philippine Television,” chapter for the Oxford Handbook of Arrangement Studies, edited by Ryan Bañagale, Oxford University Press, forthcoming.

“Interludes of MTV,” International Journal of Creative Media Research, forthcoming.

I’m an assistant professor of musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Texas at Austin. I was previously a lecturer at The New School and a postdoc fellow at Princeton. I earned my PhD at the University of Cambridge (Peterhouse). Prior to grad school, I worked as a journalist and arts editor. Email: james.gabrillo@austin.utexas.edu.

journalism

© Christo 

I previously worked as a journalist and editor for various publications, including The National, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Rogue Magazine. My writing has also been published in Rolling Stone Italia and Al Jazeera English. I’ve also produced multimedia and documentary segments for Wired and The Japan Times.

I’ve reported on politics, culture, technology, and sport from major international cities. Notable coverage include presidential elections in both the US and the Philippines, international film, music, fashion, and visual art festivals, a Middle East-wide spelling bee, Formula 1 racing, and interviews with Michael Jordan, Grant Achatz, and Christo.