Meri
Kytö
Areas of expertise
Biography
MA in Musicology (Univeristy of Turku, 2006)
PhD in Cultural Studies, especially ethnomusicology (University of Eastern Finland, 2013)
Associate professor (title of docent) in Auditory culture studies (University of Eastern Finland, 2018)
Before joining the University of Turku in 2022, I worked as a researcher at the Universities of Tampere, Eastern Finland, Copenhagen and London (Goldsmiths). In addition, I have lectured and taught at the following universities: Milano Bicocca, Copenhagen, Lund, Goldsmiths, Istanbul Technical, Anadolu, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Grenoble, RMIT Melbourne, SCAD Hong Kong, Aalto, University of the Arts Helsinki.
Teaching
For musicology, I am responsible for the first year studies of the degree programme. I am also responsible for the courses “Analysis of Music and Sound”, “Popular Music” and “Auditory Culture Studies” at the undergraduate level and for the courses “Analysis of Music and Sound II” and “Auditory Culture Studies II” at the MA level. I also work as a supervisor of MA and doctoral theses.
Research
My own research and expertise has focused on the study of auditory culture and (urban) space. I did my MA on “Kassandra” by Iannis Xenakis, my PhD dissertation on the intersection of private and common soundscapes in urban space. I have studied sonic neighbourhood relations, the domestication of soundscapes, busking, football songs, film sound and its designers, soundscape composition, sonic etiquette, the soundscape of political demonstrations and libraries, hearing aid use and agency, and now most recently background music: as a Christmas season, in the context of well-being at work, and as an aurally diverse experience. I do qualitative research, ethnographic fieldwork, listening walks, interviews, observations. I seek to understand how sound is used and produced in different places, how it is listened to and understood, how it is sought to be influenced and how changes in it are responded to.
I am currently leading the Audible Future project (2024-2026) and I am part of a research team in the Academy of Finland funded SOMECO (Sonic Mediations and Ecocritical Listening) project.
I am President of the Finnish Society for Musicology. I coordinate the EASA Sensory media anthropology network together with Nina Gronlykke Mollerup and Niamh Ni Bhroin. I am an editor of Seismograf journal. I have also edited Musiikki (2022-2024), the Yearbook of Ethnomusicology (2014-2017), the special issues of Musiikin suunta (Soundscape Studies, Music and Migration, Fantasy, Science Fiction and Game Music), and the anthologies Sata suomalaista äänimaisemaa, Acoustic Environments in Chance & Five Village Soundscapes and European Acoustic Heritage. The latest anthology Muuttuvat suomalaiset äänimaisemat was selected as Tampere University Press' “Book of the Year”.