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Research Collaborator

University of Toronto at Scarborough

Drawing on a diverse range of musical examples from the early-twentieth century to the present day, Dr. Stanbridge’s current SSHRC-supported research project focuses on the manner in which a variety of discourses have shaped contemporary understandings of musical meaning and cultural value. Dr. Stanbridge has published articles on popular music, jazz history, and cultural policy, and he is currently working on the forthcoming Rhythm Changes: The Discourses of Jazz, to be published by Routledge in 2010. He is a contributor to the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World (writing the entries on Postmodernism, the Hollywood Musical, and Jazz), and a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Cultural Policy and the Jazz Research Journal. Dr. Stanbridge teaches courses in cultural policy, cultural studies, and jazz history, and he is the recipient of a Faculty Teaching Award for his contribution to the teaching of undergraduates. In a previous life, Dr. Stanbridge pursued a fifteen-year career in professional arts management and music promotion in the UK, during which time he held the post of Director of the Glasgow International Jazz Festival, and occupied senior management positions with several arts centres and music organizations, including Midlands Arts Centre and Jazz Services. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology (Carleton University), a master’s in communications (University of Wolverhampton), and a master’s equivalent in arts administration (City University, London).

If people talked the way they drummed in improvisation, then I think the world would be a lot nicer…

– Youth participant, ICASP improvisation workshop