Hazel Marsh

With a background in Latin American Studies, my teaching and research interests include popular music and social activism, politics and popular culture, the creative arts and community action, collective memory and identity, culture and disaster risk reduction, music and social movements, film and media, and the contributions of Gypsy/Romani/Traveller groups to the societies they live in.

I'm a member of the Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS), the Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS), the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), and have links with several organisations which aim to disseminate information about social justice, human rights and environmental issues in Latin America. I've worked closely with Norfolk Minorities Attainment and Achievement Service (MAAS) to organise ‘Gypsy/Traveller Taster Days’ at UEA, raising awareness of the challenges and issues faced by ethnic minorities in HE and providing opportunities for inter-cultural exchange. I'm on the executive committee of the Advisory Council for the Education of Romany and other Travellers (ACERT), am a member of the European Roma Insitute for Arts and Culture (https://eriac.org/), and an associated member of the European Academic Network on Romani Studies. 

In my free time, I'm an amateur musician and played for many years with local Klezmer band, Klunk.

• Academic Presentations
• 24 - 25 February 2023, Folk Singing Symposium, University of Sheffield. Gypsy/Traveller groups in the UK and their relationship with folk music. Papre: ‘Gypsy and Traveller Voices in Music Archives in the UK’ (co-presenter) and ‘Romani Gypsy and Traveller song - the ethics of representation’ (presenter)
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• 7-8 December 2022, Conference of the UK Alliance for Disaster Research, 'Disaster research and innovation at a time of global uncertainty', Edinburgh Climate Change Institute. Co-organiser of panel 'Whose recovery? Recognising and supporting the voices of disaster-affected people'. 
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• 23-26 August 2022, Conference 'Latin American and the Caribbean in Times of COVID-19: Responses, Adaptations, and Recoveries'. University of Toronto, Canada. Paper title: 'Voices of recovery: supporting marginalised communities in the Amazonian regions of Brazil, Colombia and Peru'.
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• 8-9 June 2022, Workshop 'Romani History – Methods, Sources, Ethics'. Prague Forum for Romani Histories at the Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences in cooperation with Vanderbilt University, Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Seminar of Romani Studies at Charles University. Paper title '“Gypsy Music“ in the UK and the Ethics of Representation'  
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• 14-16 July 2021, La calle para tod@s: Critical creativity in the everyday of Latin American and Iberian cities, online conference organised by Newcastle University's Institute for Creative Arts Practice, School of Modern Languages, Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies along with ILAS and SLAS. Paper title: 'The Art of Disaster Risk Reduction in Colombia’

• 10-11 July 2019, New Area Studies Theory/Method: Blurring Genres’ conference, organised by University of East Anglia. Paper title: ‘The Politics of Music in Latin America’.

• 5 July 2018. 'Labour Songs Across the Globe'. International symposium held as part of Rudolstadt Festival, Germany. Paper title: 'Music and Social Movements in Mexico'.

• 29 April 2017. Sare Patria: Romani Action conference, New York University. Paper title: 'Representations of "Gypsy Music" in the UK'.  

• 13 May 2016. Dialogical seminar on Education, culture and politics in Latin America and Europe. EDU, UEA

• 1 November 2014. ‘Popular Music and Politics in Venezuela in the Chávez Period’. Latin American Music Seminar, Royal Holloway, University of London.

• 19-20 September 2014. ‘The Aesthetics of Politics and the Politics of Aesthetics in Contemporary Venezuela, University of Cambridge’.University of Cambridge. Paper title: ‘The Politics of Music in Venezuela in the Chávez Period’

•  15 April 2014. Sound Affects, AHRC Network on Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change. University of East Anglia. Paper title: ‘Popular music and politics in Venezuela in the Chávez period: ‘New Song’ and 21st Century Bolivarianism’.

• 7-8 June 2013. ‘Changing the Tune’. University of Strasbourg.  Paper title ‘Alí Primera’s songs as contested space in contemporary Venezuela’

• 1 December 2011. Seminar on cultural politics in contemporary Venezuela at the Research Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool.

• 16th-17th April 2010. Organiser of conference Mi pueblo me hace cantar: Music and Politics in Latin America. University of East Anglia.

• 9-10 April 2010. Annual conference of the Society for Latin American Studies. Paper title 'La cultura es el pueblo: Bolivarian Cultural Policy'. University of Bristol.

• 22-24 January 2010. Conference ‘The Pink Tide: reconfiguring Politics, Power and Political Economy in the Americas?’ University of Nottingham. Paper Title: ‘Bolivarianism and Cultural Politics; What’s New?’

• 13-17 July 2009. Biannual conference of the International Association of the Study of Popular Music. University of Liverpool. Paper title: ‘“Will There Be Any Travellers in Heaven?”: British Gypsies and their Impact on the British Folk Tradition’.

• 26-27 March 2009. Annual Conference of the Society for Latin American Studies. University of Leeds. Paper title: ‘Whose Heritage? Cultural Policy and Civil Society in Contemporary Venezuela’.

• 26-27 September 2008. University of Newcastle. Conference: ‘Tlatelolco: Forty Years Later’. Paper title: ‘Ayeres de Tlatelolco: Writing History in our Songs. The Protest Music of Judith Reyes and José de Molina’.

• 1-2 July 2008. University of Cambridge. Conference: ‘Memory Maps: Image, Place and Story’. Paper title: ‘At the Atchin Tan: Gypsies, Music and Memory in East Anglia and South-East England’.

• 28-30 March 2008, Annual Conference of the Society for Latin American Studies. University of Liverpool, Liverpool. Paper title: ‘‘Ya cayó’: the APPO Movement and Resistance Music in Oaxaca, México, 2006-7’.

• 22-23 November 2007. Conference ‘Conflict and Political Change in Contemporary Colombia and Venezuela’, University of Liverpool. Paper title: ‘Alí Primera and Contemporary Venezuelan Politics’.

• 25-29 June 2007. Biannual conference of the International Association of the Study of Popular Music. Mexico City, Mexico. Paper title: ‘Alí Primera and the Construction of Bolivarianism in Contemporary Venezuela’.

• 13-15 April 2007. Annual Conference of the Society for Latin American Studies. University of Newcastle, Newcastle. Convenor of panel ‘Music and Politics in Latin America’ and co-convenor of panel ‘Music in Latin America: Memory, Activism and Social Change’. Paper title: ‘The Sound of Bolivarianism in Contemporary Venezuela’.

• 23-25 July 2006. Conference: ‘Popular Musics of the Hispanic and Lusophone Worlds’ University of Newcastle, Newcastle. Paper title: ‘El padre cantor: Alí Primera and nueva canción in Venezuela.

• 7-10 July 2006. Conference: ‘Collective memory and Uses of the Past’. University of East Anglia, Norwich. Paper title: ‘Popular Music, Collective memory and Political Change in Contemporary Venezuela’.

• 17 May 2006. Conference: ‘Sounds of the Overground’. Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool, Liverpool. Paper title: ‘Ubiquitous Alí: Popular Music and Bolivarianism in Contemporary Venezuela’.

• Departmental Seminars:

• 16 May 2009. Latin American Music Seminar. Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London. Paper title: "Writing History in our Songs": The Mexican Student Movement of 1968 & the Protest Music of José de Molina & Judith Reyes.

• 9 December 2008. PSI Research Seminar, UEA. ‘La cultura es el pueblo: Cultural Policy in Contemporary Venezuela’.

• 17 October 2008. HIS Research Seminar, UEA. ‘Will there be any Travellers in Heaven? Gypsies, Music and Memory’.

• 15 January 2008. Latin American Research Group, School of Development Studies, UEA. Seminar on music and politics in contemporary Venezuela.

• 4 November 2006. Latin American Music Seminar. Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London. Paper title: ‘Alí Primera: huella profunda sobre esta tierra. Canto necesario in Contemporary Venezuela

My research interests include popular music and social activism, politics and popular culture, the creative arts and community action, collective memory and identity, culture and disaster risk reduction, music and social movements, heritage studies, and the contributions of Gypsy/Roma/Traveller groups to the societies they live in. 

My book Hugo Chávez and Alí Primera in Venezuela: The Politics of Music in Latin America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) analyses the use of popular music in the construction of political discourses in Venezuela during the Chávez period. 

Research groups

Cultural Politics, Communications and Media Research Group

Migration Research Network

After Shock Research Network

Research grants and awards 

The Art of Disaster Risk Reduction: an arts-based approach to strengthening community and institutional capacity in Colombia (Principal investigator, 2019-2020). 

This project explores innovative ways to engage with at-risk communities in Colombia, and will deepen and extend impacts achieved via Moving with Risk: forced displacement and vulnerability to hazards in Colombia (funded under the GCRF ESRC/AHRC Forced Displacement call 2016, PI Prof Roger Few [DEV]).

Soacha, Pereira and Manizales, with populations of approximately 4 million, 500,000 and 400,000 respectively, are Colombian municipalities in which 30-60% of land is prone to hydrometeorological hazards. The primary aim of The Art of Disaster Risk Reduction is to strengthen the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) capacities of marginalised communities living in these disaster-prone areas. Through music, theatre and art, community members will co-create and share knowledge about DRR, public policy, their legal rights and responsibilities, and the services available to them via institutions and government organisations.

The project brings together academics from the University of East Anglia (DEV and PPL) and Universidad de Manizales (Department of Social Psychology for Disaster Risk Management), as well as researchers from Human Rights organisation Dejusticia, representatives of the Colombian Red Cross and DRR sections of local municipalities in Colombia.

Recovery with Dignity (Co-investigator, 2018-2020)

This 2-year project, funded under the British Academy’s GCRF Sustainable Development Programme, generates applied knowledge on experiences of recovery in post-disaster settings within India using historical research and creative, participatory methodologies drawn from the humanities and social sciences. The hypothesis of the research is that recovery processes that recognise and respect the dignity of socially-differentiated populations will result in more sustainable responses, minimising ongoing trauma.

Moving with Risk (Co-investigator, 2016-2018)

This ESRC-funded project focuses on a critical but under-researched theme in studies of forced displacement: the processes through which people forced from their homes by conflict can commonly become exposed to heightened risk from environmental hazards in the places where they resettle. Effectively, such people exchange one form of catastrophic risk for another, often with little real choice in the process. The collaborative project pioneers an innovative methodology using the expressive arts in Colombia, where five decades of conflict have generated what is currently the world's largest population of internally displaced people. 

Director of Equality and Diversity (PPL)

Chair of 'Decolonise PPL'  Working Group 

Module organiser for:

• Academic and Research Skills (level 7)
• MA Dissertation Language and Communication Studies (level 7)
• An Introduction to Popular Culture in Latin America (level 4)
• Introduction to World Languages and Cultures (level 4)
• Film and Society in Latin America (level 5)
• Latin America and the World (level 5)
• Dissertation in Language and Culture (level 6)

Invited talks/Public Lectures/Engagement:

• 22 July 2020. Talk on Romanies and Travellers (via Zoom) for Norwich Interfaith Link
• 12 February 2020. In conversation about her latest book, A Long Petal of the Sea, with Isabel Allende, UEA Literary festival and The Arthur Miller Institute. 
• 24 January 2020. Talk on Roma and Sinti for Holocaust Memorial Day. St. Stephen's Church, Norwich.

• 30 March 2019, The Progressive Media conference, organised by The Norwich Radical at University of East Anglia. Paper title, ‘Roma and the Media’.

• 17 September 2016. Talk on British Gypsies and identity at ACERT conference Identity Now, London.

• 22 April 2016. The Forum, Norwich. Talk on representations of British Gypsies in the writing of George Borrow, Norwich City of Interculture.
• 28 February 2016. UEA. Lecture on the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis and his links with Latin America.
• 29 November 2014. Congress House, London. Latin America 2014 Adelante! Talk on culture and revolution in Latin America.
• 27 May 2014. The Forum, Norwich. Campus in the City. Talk ‘The Amazing Aztecs’
• 9 November 2013. Lecture title ‘El hombre es un creador: Víctor Jara and the Leftist Revival of Folk Traditions’. Cambridge Society of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, University of Cambridge
• 1-2 November 2013.  ‘Norwich and George Borrow: A Celebration’. Paper title ‘At the Atchin tan: Gypsies, Music and Memory in East Anglia and South-East England’. The Assembly Rooms, Norwich
• July 2013, Bolívar Hall, London. Talk for the book launch of Counter-Globalisation from the South: ALBA and the Construction of “21st Century Socialism”, ed. Thomas Muhr. Routledge
• 27 April 2013. Conference: The legacy of Hugo Chavez – Showing There is an Alternative in the 21st Century. University of London. Talk on Venezuelan cultural policy in the Chávez period 
• 17-18 February 2012. Norwich City of Interculture. Public lecture, the Forum, Norwich. ‘What have the Gypsies ever done for us? Gypsies . .....and their contributions to the folk revival of the 1960's’.
• 2 June 2009. Public lecture: Romany History in East Anglia. Norfolk Family History Association. Great Yarmouth.
• 2010: Organiser of conference ‘Mi pueblo me hace cantar: music and politics in Latin America', with funding awarded by the Society for Latin American Studies. 
• 4 April 2009. Symposium Venezuela: Ten Years of Social Transformation. University of Westminster, London. Workshop on cultural policy in contemporary Venezuela.
• 29 June, 2008. The Playhouse, Norwich. Public talk on globalisation and Latin America.
• 25 June 2008, Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London. Conference: ‘Researching Contemporary History as it Happens: the Case of Hugo Chávez’.
• 24 October 2007. Saint Margaret’s Church, Norwich. Music and politics in Venezuela.
• 10-12 August 2007. El sueño existe, Machynlleth, Wales. Workshop ‘Alí Primera, Popular Music and Political Change in Venezuela’.
• 2 December 2006. Conference ‘Latin America 2006: Haciendo posible otro mundo/Making another World Possible’. TUC Congress House, London. Paper title: ‘Canto necesario: Musical Activism in Contemporary Venezuela’.
• 28 October 2006. ‘Venezuela: Democracy and Social Progress’. City Hall, London. Paper title: ‘Culture, Protest and Political Change in Venezuela’.

Selected reviewer/referee activity

· Bloomsbury

· The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

· Bulletin of Hispanic Studies

· Bulletin of Latin American Research

· Journal of Popular Music Studies

· Popular Music

· Routledge books

· Volume: The French Journal of Popular Music Studies

· Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies

· Ethnomusicology

· Unidad Nacional para la Gestión de Riesgo de Desastres of the Colombian government

· The Translator