ICOG visiting research fellow: Patryk Galuszka

From August 2020 to April 2021, ICOG is joined by visiting research fellow Patryk Galuszka. Dr Galuszka is a popular music and media studies scholar and an associate professor at the Faculty of Economics and Sociology at the University of Lodz. He has held visiting fellowships at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Central European University, the University of Hamburg, the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, and the University of California, Berkeley.

His articles have been published in journals such as the International Journal of Communication, the International Journal of Cultural Studies, Popular Music, Popular Music & Society, Media, Culture & Society, and Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. Recently he has edited a volume titled Made in Poland: Studies in Popular Music (Routledge, 2020). His research interests include creative industries, popular music studies, and media consumption.

Research

Dr Galuszka’s current project aims to examine inequalities in the global music market through the analysis of how Eastern European artists use showcase festivals to advance their careers and enter foreign markets. He expects that the analysis of the ways in which Eastern European artists make use of showcase festivals will bring to the surface the tensions between the digital economy’s promise of unlimited possibilities and the structural inequalities characterizing cultural markets.

Due to geographical proximity, the most important showcase festivals for Eastern European artists take place in Groningen (Eurosonic Noorderslag), Hamburg (Reeperbahn Festival), and countries of the region (Budapest: BUSH, Ljubljana: Ment, Poznań: Enea Springbreak). Each year, many Eastern European artists travel to these locations to attract business partners from foreign markets. To address the importance of the first two aforementioned festivals, Dr Galuszka chose Groningen as the main site of the study.

The project is of a qualitative nature and will utilize an integrated cultural-industrial method of analysis. The data will come from in-depth interviews with artists and festival organizers, ethnographic field observations of festivals and accompanying trade events, the textual analysis of artists’ and festivals’ communications, and economic/industrial analysis. During his stay in Groningen, Dr Galuszka will be collaborating with colleagues in the Research Centre for Arts in Society.

Visiting research fellowship programme

ICOG welcomes applications for visiting research fellowships from academics working in the fields of its five research centres. The duration of visits usually varies from a month to half a year. During this time, visiting research fellows are expected to work on their own research projects (ideally in collaboration with a scholar or an academic team from ICOG) and to participate in the events organised by ICOG.