Angela Impey

Biography

Angela is involved in three areas of research. The first examines the ways in which mobilities and gender intersect in the borderlands of South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland, where the landscape that has been dramatically reconfigured by transboundary conservation development This research builds on narratives inspired by the revival of the jews harp – instruments once performed by young Nguni women to accompany walking, but remembered now by elderly women only – and explores how meanings given to gendered mobilities through sound, song and performance inflect local experiences of land, spatiality and belonging. A second project, entitled ‘Metre and Melody in Dinka Speech and Song’ was funded by the AHRC under the ‘Beyond Text’ programme: [Nilotic Prosody]. The project, which was conducted in collaboration with the Department of Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh, focused on supra-segmental features in four Dinka dialect clusters in South Sudan, and examined how song systems interact with the unique combinations of tone, length and voice quality specifications of the language. The research also sought to better understand Dinka song-making as a historically, socially and politically embedded system both within South Sudan and the Dinka diaspora. Although the project was recently completed, Angela continues to work on the materials and is planning ongoing research in the region. She is co-investigator on a recently funded AHRC research project in west Namibia entitled ‘Future Pasts in an Apocalyptic Moment: A Hybrid Analysis of 'Green' Performativities and Eco-cultural Ethics in a Globalised African Landscape’ (2013-2018). The project will explore tensions between local and indigenous conceptions of human/nature relationships (as encoded in songs, oral narratives and healing rituals), and crisis-driven narratives on environmental change that are being used to justify new market-based methods for creating 'green' futures. Led by Sian Sullivan, (Environment and Development at Birkbeck), the team also includes Rick Rohde (Honorary Fellow at University of Edinburgh), Chris Low (Birkbeck), and environmental philosopher, Mike Hannis (Keele University). The project is affiliated locally with the National Museum of Namibia and the Namibian film company, Mamokobo Productions. [The research is a response to the AHRC's 2012 highlight notice on 'Environmental Change and Sustainability' under the Council's ‘Care for the Future’

Research Interest

Music