Staff

Jan Butler studied Music at Nottingham University, from BA to MA through to the completion of her AHRC-funded PhD exploring the origins of authenticity in US 60s rock music, with particular focus on the Beach Boys.  She specialises in the study of rock in the context of its surrounding institutions, exploring how musicians negotiate the expectations of their audience, the industry and the media and analysing the resultant sounds and visuals. Jan also has a related interest in how popular music appears in and on film, and is co-founder of the Sound on Screen research unit.  She has presented her work at international conferences, organised events exploring music publishing, journalism and sound on screen and has published several aspects of her work.

As a co-founder of PMRU, Jan co-organised and presented at the first two Shifting Ground events, which explored links between music and publishing. Jan is currently working on recordings and cover versions in conjunction with PMRU, continuing work from the Shifting Ground projects. She is also gathering new primary materials to develop her work on the use of music in Baz Luhrmann's films into a monograph in the near future.

David Carugo is a Senior Lecturer and Subject Coordinator for Creative Music Production. He has a long background in the music and audio industry, having worked as a touring sound engineer, professional musician, electronic engineer, acoustic consultant, music producer, and recording/mixing/mastering engineer. His teaching work includes many aspects of music and sound production, and concentrates on the application of technical theory to professional practice. He holds a BSc(Hons) in Applied Physics and an MSc in Music Technology, and is a member of the Audio Engineering Society and the Institute of Acoustics. He has been awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in recognition of his excellence in teaching.

Adam Lonsdale has been at Oxford Brookes since 2011 and is a senior lecturer in the Psychology department. His research interests concern the social psychology of music, applying well-established theories from mainstream social psychology to better understand music and musical behaviour. In particular, he is interested in the social functions of music and the idea that people might use their musical tastes as a ‘badge’ of identity and group membership.

Dr Laurence Mann is a Senior Lecturer in Japanese Language at Oxford Brookes and holds an affiliation (as Lecturer) with the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford, where he has taught since 2017. On Thursday and Friday evenings, he also teaches at the Kairali Music Academy, a community-funded music school based in Northway. Before coming to Oxford, he taught music in South Wales, as a full-time peripatetic with the City and County of Swansea’s music service (Swansea Music / Cerdd Abertawe). Aside from teaching, his role included conducting and directing local orchestras, bands and training ensembles, as well as coordinating concerts, eisteddfodau and outreach events. In his spare time, he worked freelance as a gigging musician, performing in concert venues across Wales and beyond, as well as at hundreds of weddings, parties, corporate and public events. He plays a panoply of instruments and holds a Diploma in Recorder Performance from the ABRSM, which he gained at the age of fourteen. His research interests include song and poetry in Japanese, Korean and other languages. He has recently published on the use of rap in Japanese language teaching (Online Language Learning: Tips for Teachers, Palgrave 2022) and has just completed a new chapter on multimodality and intertextuality in J-Pop, as part of a volume he edited for Routledge (forthcoming).

Jennifer Skellington is an Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes. Her key area of expertise is music criticism and journalism; her broader teaching and research specialisms cover a wide range of popular music related topics, including popular music and identity (race, gender, class, nationality), audio cultures, subcultures, the music industry and critical theory.