I am a musicologist with a special interest in the anthropology and sociology of music. My main areas of research expertise include


  1. ‣music, war and violence, including the use of music in torture

  2. ‣the historical anthropology of music, especially in the British Isles

  3. ‣new and experimental composition since World War II

  4. ‣the social functions of singing

  5. ‣music and human rights

  6. ‣music and law

  7. ‣music in Scotland


I studied at the University of Glasgow, King’s College London and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. From 2008-2014 I led the research group “Music, Conflict and the State” at the University of Göttingen. In the academic year 2014-2015 I was a Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Centre of Advanced Study “Law as Culture” at the University of Bonn. In January 2016 I was a research visitor at the University of Vienna in the context of the Balzan research project “Towards a global history of music”.


I’m currently a Teaching Fellow at the Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh, and am also writing a book on the musicology of war, for which I received extensive funding from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. I have also taught at the University of Göttingen, the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, the European College of Liberal Arts (now Bard College Berlin), at Stockhausen Courses in Kürten and on the M. A. programme “Governance and Human Rights” at Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

    I am a native speaker of English/Scots English, speak fluent German, and am an experienced translator.


Contact: mjgrant[at]mjgrant.eu


What’s in a name?

Campaign Bear: my subsite for political and human rights activism