Thomas Solomon

Hello, and welcome to my home page. I am an ethnomusicologist and cultural anthropologist. I received the Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin in May 1997, and currently hold the position of Førsteamanuensis / Associate Professor (Ethnomusicology) in the Grieg Academy - Institute for Music at the University of Bergen in Norway.

The primary foci of my research are the anthropology of the arts and the anthropology of place. My first major field work project was on musical imaginations of ecology, place and identity in highland Bolivia. This work draws on theory and methods of cultural and linguistic anthropology, ethnomusicology, and folklore. The results of this research are written up in my dissertation, available from University Microfilms International. For ordering information and to see my dissertation abstract, click here.

I have also done work on popular music in Latin America, focusing on issues of the global circulation of musics, ownership of music (copyright), and popular music as an arena for the imagination of ethnic identities. I have presented some of this work in conference papers listed on my CV.

My current research focuses on several aspects of popular music in Turkey, including Turkish music videoclips, Turkey's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, and Turkish rap music and hip-hop youth culture. I have presented some of this research in publications and conference papers listed on my CV.

Also at this site are a number of pages with images and text about my research among the Chayantaka people of Bolivia. There is a page with a map showing the location of Chayantaka territory, a page with photos of landscapes and people engaged in agricultural work, a page about my field work, and pages about language and musical performance.

I also have included a page with some links.

Comments about this site are most welcome. Please send them to the e-mail address below.

All text and graphics at this web site are © 2002 Thomas Solomon.
e-mail: thomas.solomonXXX@grieg.uib.no

Note: to send me e-mail, remove the characters XXX from the above address. I have placed these extra characters in the address listed there to foil automated e-mail address-collecting programs used by spammers.

Last updated 20 August 2005