Matthew Machin-Autenrieth
Matthew Machin-Autenrieth
I am Lecturer in Ethnomusicology at the University of Aberdeen, who specialises in flamenco studies, music, migration and postcolonial studies in the western Mediterranean. I was formerly the Principal Investigator for the European Research Council-funded project ‘Past and Present Musical Encounters across the Strait of Gibraltar’ (2018–23). I completed my Masters and PhD in Ethnomusicology at Cardiff University. Following my studies, I was appointed as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge (2014–18) before becoming Senior Research Associate from 2018–20. I joined the University of Aberdeen in 2020.
My research spans three main areas focusing on the Strait of Gibraltar region: the relationship between music and regional identity; heritage studies; and music, migration and postcolonial studies. My first monograph, Flamenco, Regionalism and Musical Heritage in Southern Spain (Routledge, 2017), explored the relationship between flamenco and Andalusian regional identity, focusing on its institutionalisation as a heritage tradition and the ways in which this process has been received by flamenco communities, most notably in the city of Granada. Since being awarded my Leverhulme fellowship in 2014 and subsequent ERC grant in 2018, my research has examined (post)colonial musical manifestations of a shared heritage between Spain and Morocco, focusing on collaborations between flamenco and Arab-Andalusian musicians. From these projects I have published various articles, a co-edited volume, with Salwa el-Shawan Castelo-Branco and Samuel Llano, Music and the Making of Portugal and Spain: Nationalism and Identity Politics in the Iberian Peninsula (which won the Ellen Koskoff edited volume prize) and am working on a monograph (under contract with Lexington Books).
I am delighted to be a Co-I on the ‘Arabic in Spanish’ project, and to draw on my existing research and networks to explore the historical and contemporary role of Arabic in Spain, and to develop public engagement activities such as city walking guides and concerts.
Matthew is a researcher with “Arabic in Spanish: Speaking, Knowing, and Belonging at the Edges of Europe” a new project for research and public engagement, supported by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities’ PCER fund.
