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Dr Sudiipta Dowsett

Dr Sudiipta Dowsett

Research Fellow

PhD Anthropology, UNSW,Ìý 2017

Bachelor Soc Sci Honours (1A), Macquarie University, 2006

Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA)
School of the Arts & Media

I am an anthropologist with a research focus on the transformative effects of embodied collective performance practices. More specifically I am interested in the decolonial and revitalisation capacities of hip-hop cultures in South Africa and Australia. ÌýMy work explores how artists utilise hip-hop to make sense of complex neo-colonial contexts, and to revitalise language and culture, embodying and embedding ancestral art forms within the contemporary global performance culture of hip-hop, remixing, asserting and claiming their place in the world.

My PhD entitled Revolutionary but gangsta: hip-hop in Khayelitsha, South Africa (2017) documented the hip-hop scene in the township of Khayelitsha including its histories and intersections with the broader Cape Town hip-hop scenes and the development of Spaza rap - a unique form of hip-hop that emerged from the isiXhosa-speaking townships in the late 1990s. My PhD explores the affective and embodied dimensions of emceeing andÌýdeveloped a unique perspective of emceeing through a sensory ethnographic approach. A key underlying argument of the thesis is that there are deeper political and decolonial aspects of hip hop that can only be understood through an analysis of the productive effects of hip hop as embodied performance practice, that is, the live dynamics of embodied rhythm, sound and movement, in place.
E-mail
s.dowsett@unsw.edu.au

Publications

  • Journal articles | 2021
    Dowsett SS, 2021, 'Sampling Ceremony: Hip-hop Workshops and Intergenerational Cultural Production in the Central Australian Desert', ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, 22, pp. 184 - 202,
    Book Chapters | 2020
    Dowsett S, 2020, 'The Routes of Hip-Hop in Cape Town: Collective Performance Practices and the Embodied Sociality of the Ghetto', in Peddie I (ed.), Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music and Social Class, Bloomsbury, New York, pp. 485 - 506
    Book Chapters | 2019
    Dowsett S, 2019, 'Transformative effects of hip-hop events in Khayelitsha, South Africa', in Walters T; Jepson AS (ed.), Marginalisation and Events, Routledge
  • Journal articles | 2021
    Dowsett SS, 2021, 'Sampling Ceremony: Hip-hop Workshops and Intergenerational Cultural Production in the Central Australian Desert', ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, 22, pp. 184 - 202,
    Book Chapters | 2020
    Dowsett S, 2020, 'The Routes of Hip-Hop in Cape Town: Collective Performance Practices and the Embodied Sociality of the Ghetto', in Peddie I (ed.), Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music and Social Class, Bloomsbury, New York, pp. 485 - 506
    Book Chapters | 2019
    Dowsett S, 2019, 'Transformative effects of hip-hop events in Khayelitsha, South Africa', in Walters T; Jepson AS (ed.), Marginalisation and Events, Routledge

Awards

Grants

2023 Rebel Sistah Cypher: Hip-hop as embodied practice for social change,ÌýEarly Career Research small grant scheme, Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry (ANU).

2021-2023ÌýLajamanu Women's Ceremony, Indigenous Languages and Arts Program,ÌýDepartment of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications

Media

  • Media | 2023
    Curran G; Dowsett S; White-Radhakrishnan M, 2023, "Representing place through hip-hop with Sudiipta Dowsett" [podcast] Music! Dance! Culture!,
    Media | 2023
    Dowsett S; Mketho M; Curran G; White-Radhakrishnan M, 2023, "Born for this gift with amaXhosa rapper MC Kideo" [podcast] Music! Dance! Culture!,
    Media | 2022
    Curran G; Dowsett S; Patrick JJ; Patrick WJ; White-Radhakrishnan M, 2022, "On Milpirri and digging up yams of knowledge with Wanta Steven Jampijinpa Patrick and Jerry Jangala Patrick" [podcast episode] Music!Dance!Culture!,

I am currently working asÌýa Research Associate at the Big Anxiety Research CentreÌýwithin the Ethnographic Media Lab (emLAB) on collaborative projects including:

  • ARC Linkage project Indigenous Futurity: Milpirri as Experimental Ceremony, led by Prof Jennifer Biddle, in collaboration with project partner Tracks Dance CompanyÌýand Lajamanu Warlpiri community. Milpirri Festival features adults Jukurrpa (Dreaming) performances alongside youth hip-hop interpretations of Warlpiri cultural themes.
  • As aÌýrecipient of the "Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry's"ÌýEarly Career Researcher Small Grant SchemeÌý(2023) I am Chief InvestigatorÌýfor a collaborative project with Cape Town-basedÌýanarchistÌýhip-hop crew, . The co-designed project, entitledÌý, investigates the challenges and capacities of hip-hop for women in Khayelitsha, South Africa through collective practice-based Song Workshops.
  • Lajamanu Women's Ceremony: keeping Yawulyu strong - a co-designed projectÌýwith Warlpiri women from Lajamanu and Yuendumu toÌýdevelopÌýcultural resourcesÌýto supportÌýintergenerational knowledgeÌýtransfer.
  • A compilationÌýalbum entitledÌýKaltsha Kulture, set for release in 2023 by ,Ìýrecorded in a township studioÌýin 2011 during fieldwork for my PhD featuring collaborations with Khayelitsha hip-hop artists Metabolism, Kideo, Shadow, and Soundz of the South along with tracks by Rhamcnwa, Lemzin, Mfura, and Canon, stayed tuned!
  • The first edited collection to focus on hip-hop in Australia,Ìýco-edited with Lucas Marie, Dianne Rodger and Grant Saunders, bringingÌýtogether diverse practitioner-scholarÌýperspectives (working title: Hip-Hop Culture in Australia)Ìýunder contract with Routledge Press.

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Episode titled,Ìý,Ìýfeatured on Music! Dance! Culture! podcast co-produced with Georgia Curran and Mahesh White-Radhakrishnan.

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Professional memberships:

International Association for the Study of Popular Music

Australian Anthropological Society

International Council for Traditional Music

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