Monash University signs MoU with Hudds music department
The University's Professor Aaron Cassidy signing the Memorandum of Understanding in Melbourne
Tue, 27 Sep 2016 14:43:00 BST
The Memorandum of Understanding will explore research in musicology, composition, British music studies and performance practice
THE University of Huddersfield’s music department has formed a partnership with Australia’s largest university. It will lead to new research collaborations and opportunities for student exchange visits.
A Memorandum of Understanding with the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University in Melbourne has now been signed, and there are many areas of research that are shared by the two departments, says the University of Huddersfield’s Head of Music and Drama, Professor Rachel Cowgill. They include musicology, composition, British music studies and performance practice.
But there are also specialist areas of expertise at both Huddersfield and Monash, she added. For example the Melbourne University is renowned as a centre for the study of ethnomusicology – particularly the music of Indonesia and South-east Asia – and this could open up new possibilities for researchers at Huddersfield.
The link between the two music departments was established by Professor Cowgill (pictured left). In November 2015, she was a Visiting Scholar in Musicology at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, when she delivered a keynote lecture at a symposium.
She also held talks with Dr Paul Watt (pictured above far right), Senior Lecturer in Musicology at Monash, and acting Deputy Associate Dean for Research in its Faculty of Arts. He has a speciality in historic British music and music criticism. This regularly brings him to the UK, and he has now been appointed a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield. He will continue to collaborate with Professor Cowgill on a variety of projects and early in 2017 he holds a research seminar for master’s students at Huddersfield.
There is also a prospect that University of Huddersfield PhD stud
ents might visit Monash to work with Dr Watt or some of his colleagues, added Professor Cowgill.
Equally, students at Monash might come over here, particularly if they are using British sources, such as we have in the British Music Collection at the University of Huddersfield's Heritage Quay, or because they want to work with members of staff here. There’s a lot of complementarity between the two departments,” she said.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed at Huddersfield by the University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor, International, Professor Dave Taylor. There was also a signing ceremony at Monash, attended by Aaron Cassidy, who is one of the University of Huddersfield’s Professors of Composition. He was visiting Australia for the premiere of one of his works at the Bendigo Festival – close to Melbourne – and took the opportunity to help seal the relationship between the two music departments.
