Spent my morning with some excellent students at Roberts Wesleyan University! I gave a guest lecture on one of my diss chapters, and the students were eager to critique notions of representation, sameness, and "world music." Thanks to my brilliant colleague Dr. Eleanor Price for the invite.

XXL walked so Jemini could…run?

Here we are

My article “’Everybody Wanna Move Like Us!’: Performing Afro-Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest” has just been published in the September 2025 issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies! online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article...

sorry can’t hear you I’m a s c e n d i n g

I finished writing the last remaining chapter of my dissertation this afternoon 🥲

Roc and Buf folks: Come celebrate Palestrina’s 500th with Voices this weekend AND at NY ACDA next month! Also feat. Bach, Brahms, Bruckner, Pearsall, Poulenc, and Witt.

Friday Sep. 26 at Holy Trinity in Buffalo, 7pm.
Sunday Sep. 28 at Incarnate Word in Rochester, 4pm.
Friday Oct. 17 at NY ACDA.

Another great way to mark the Eurovision new year is to start writing an abstract for a fabulous conference to be held in Paris next year.

Proposal submission deadline: 15 October 2025

See website for more details: encore-network.org

#Eurovision #cfp #AcademicSky

📢 Call for Proposals

CES is pleased to invite submissions for its 32nd International Conference of Europeanists, to be held in Dublin, June 16–18, 2025.

For more information about the Conference Theme and how to apply visit: councilforeuropeanstudies.org/conferences/...

Music studies besties! Celebrating our dear friend @queertrumpeter.bsky.social’s wedding this evening 🥹🥲💖 @alejandrinammedina.bsky.social

Googling yourself is wild because apparently you’ll find photos of yourself that you didn’t even know existed! Here’s me chairing a panel at IASPM-US/PopCon 2025 in LA this past March. Thank god my thinking/listening face lowkey serves.

(📸 Joe Mabel)

Proofs are in! Catch my article on Afro-Swedishness in/and Eurovision in next month’s issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies.

If you’re prepping a syllabus on popular music, European culture and politics, Black transnationalisms, or something related, please consider assigning this!

Academic pals: I'm starting a shared doc to collect info on exactly why/how AI is indefensible—specifically in humanities classrooms, but also across the board. Please share/add as you see fit. I plan to lecture from this in the first week; many students don't know.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

I got it years ago (like 2017) so I’m not sure if the initial process has changed, but I remember it being pretty easy so long as you can make it to a nearby int’l airport for the interview (which iirc was also quick and easy, at least for someone who looks like I do). Definitely worth it imo.

North Macedonia’s response to the Spice Girls in Eurovision 2000 was iconic—for all the wrong reasons. Nevertheless, this hit platinum in my household.

100% getting referenced in the conclusion of my diss idc idc

Things I was not prepared for: Jinkx Monsoon referencing Eurovision and singing Silvia Night's "Congratulations" (Iceland '06) in her Ziwe interview.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrLw...

I think that as a society we need more songs with ill-advised key changes

Absolutely gutted that I'll have to miss this one, especially given this great theme!

IASPM-US is one of my cherished academic homes. Consider submitting an abstract!

I was just thinking how the crash out over Mamdani’s win is establishment types and institutions confronting the fact that he didn’t need them, and how those same types really neatly overlap with the one demanding we throw trans people under the bus

It was great to meet you on Wednesday, Eamonn! Thank you for all of your labor toward putting this wonderful conference together. This was my first CES conference and I'm looking forward to attending again in the future!

Proportionally, the estimated 100-200k Pride marchers in Budapest today would correspond to something approaching 1m in London or New York. And this in a country that has now spent 15 years under illiberal, authoritarian rule.

What a symbol of hope.