Dr Stephen Wilford

Dr Stephen Wilford is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology, Popular Music, and Sound Studies, and a Fellow of Wolfson College Cambridge. His work focuses upon the musics and soundscapes of North Africa, and in particular those of Algeria. His interests span a range of traditional and contemporary musics, from the region’s various Andalusi traditions to the Franco-Algerian hip hop scene. His research interrogates the intersections of music and sound within public and private spaces throughout the colonial and postcolonial periods, and is concerned with ideas of collective identity, cultural memory, diaspora, and the circulation of music and sound.

He studied at the University of Aberdeen, Leeds Conservatoire, and Goldsmiths, University of London, before completing his AHRC-funded PhD at City, University of London, with a thesis focusing upon music-making among the Algerian diaspora community of London. He previously taught at City (University of London), the University of Southampton, and Goldsmiths (University of London), and has delivered guest lectures for Bucknell University (USA) and the London Arts and Humanities Partnership.

Stephen is currently writing a monograph for Liverpool University Press which explores the musical and sonic relationships between Algeria and France throughout the colonial and postcolonial periods. He is the co-editor of Ethnomusicology and its Intimacies: Essays in Honour of John Baily (Routledge, 2023) and is currently co-editing a collected volume for the British Academy (Oxford University Press). He has published widely, including book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles on a range of topics. He has presented his research at conferences, seminars, lectures and workshops throughout the UK and internationally.

Stephen is currently Treasurer of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, and a committee member of both the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Ethnomusicology-Ethnochoreology committee and the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Global Online Chapter .He was formerly a researcher on the European Research Council-funded project ‘Past and Present Musical Encounters across the Strait of Gibraltar’ and a member of the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement.

Alongside his role within the Faculty of Music, Stephen serves as Director of Studies in Music and a Tutor to part-time students at Wolfson College.

Treasurer, British Forum for Ethnomusicology

Committee Member, Royal Anthropological Institute Ethnomusicology-Ethnochoreology Committee

Committee Member, Society for Ethnomusicology Global Online Chapter