Professor EmeritusLinda Barwick

I am a musicologist, specialising in the study of Australian First Nations musics, immigrant musics and the digital humanities (particularly archiving and repatriation of ethnographic field recordings as a site of interaction between researchers and cultural heritage communities). I have studied community music practices through fieldwork in Australia, Italy and the Philippines. Themes of my research include analysis of musical action in place, the language of song, and the aesthetics of cross-cultural musical practice. I also publish on theoretical issues, including analysis of non-Western music, and research implications of digital technologies.

Since its inception, I have conceived, directed, and since my retirement in 2020 helped develop the cross-institutional research infrastructure facility PARADISEC (the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures), whose Sydney arm is since 2013 based at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. I am an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). In 2019 I was Leverhulme Visiting Professor at SOAS, University of London. In 2023 I was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in recognition of my service to cultural heritage archiving. In 2024 I was awarded the Sir Bernard Heinze Award for service to Music in Australia.

At the University of Sydney, I am a member of the multidisciplinary centres the Charles Perkins Centre and the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre.