Whilst many people may be familiar with the Ethno Research team based in York St John, we also have a team that have been hard at work at the University of Toronto.
This team has been led by Roger Mantie and Laura Risk, who both recently attended Ethno France. Their main focus has been to design a conceptual framework for Ethno Research. Conceptual frameworks are the academic theories and concepts that will help us see how Ethno-World fits within research areas such as pedagogy, arts and culture, community music and ethnomusicology. For example, it helps us to understand where Ethno-World fits with regard to research that has been conducted in the area of music and globalisation, or educational programmes such as ‘El Sistema’.
The team are also designing an online time-line tracing the development of Ethno since 1990. It contains links to all the on-line content relating to each camp over the years and is a wonderful database for people interested in seeing videos, photos, articles or data such as how many people attending a certain camp, or who the artistic leaders at a camp were.
The team also explored creating a ‘code book’ for the rich qualitative data that has been gathered over the last year. This is designed to bring all the interviews that have already been conducted in our case studies together, and to prepare an approach that will help to align our research findings with the conceptual framework that has been developed as we continue with qualitative research.
Below are some of the bios from our team in Toronto:
Hi, my name is Nifemi Atanda. I attend the University of Toronto and I’m in my 4th year studying Molecular Biology, Immunology and Mental Health. My role in the Ethno research project was to find research papers concerning Ethno pedagogy, history, culture and conceptual background. I also worked on the coding of various interviews using NVivo, and on putting together the timeline of Ethno camps. It’s been really thrilling and informative working on this project and seeing the importance of these camps in bringing people of different backgrounds together through music.
Jason Li will be completing his Master of Education in Curriculum & Pedagogy (formerly known as Curriculum Studies & Teacher Development) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the University of Toronto. Prior to attending OISE, he achieved his honours BA with a Specialist in Arts Management, a Major in Music and Culture, and a Minor in Sociology. Due to recent developments, he is curious to learn more about the globalized world through the lens of social justice music education, multicultural music education, and culturally responsive teaching and how these affect the realities of the music classrooms and in community settings. Beyond the academic sphere, he plans to practice arts administrative work and conduct research in the not-for-profit arts sector.
Laura Risk is an Assistant Professor of Music and Culture in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough, with a graduate cross-appointment in the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. Her research examines the formation of musical genres and the mechanics of innovation within aural musical communities. Laura has published in Ethnomusicology and MUSICultures and served as editor for the online Music in Action Journal. She is co-author of the two-volume music collection The Glengarry Collection: The Highland Fiddle Music of Aonghas Grant and co-producer of the CD Douglastown: Music and Song from the Gaspé Coast, for which she received the 2014 Prix Mnémo for documentation of traditional music and dance in Quebec. Laura is also active as a performer and teacher of traditional fiddle music.
