Dr Laura Watson

Biography
I am a musicologist and Associate Professor of Music at Maynooth University. I was elected to the Council of the Society for Musicology in Ireland (SMI) for a second term for 2021-24 and serve as Honorary Treasurer. I also serve on the editorial board of the Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland (JSMI).
My current research focuses on women, gender, and music in Ireland. Recent publications include the coedited volume Women and Music in Ireland (Boydell, 2022) and an article on feminist musical activism. Beyond academia, I am a co-founder of the Working Group established in 2017. Sounding the Feminists is a volunteer group which campaigns for gender equality in the music sector across Ireland and has established partnerships with organisations such as the National Concert Hall and Contemporary Music Centre. I am also a named Research Collaborator on the international AHRC funded Women's Musical Leadership Online Network (WMLON), led by PI Laura Hamer (Open University) and co-I Helen Julia Minors (Kingston University).
In contemporary popular music culture, I study the phenomenon of rock and pop memoirs. Recent publications include an article on Bruce Springsteen's memoir franchise and reviews of books by Sinéad O'Connor and Bono.
In the area of French music. I published a monograph on Dukas (Paul Dukas: Composer and Critic, Boydell 2019), a coedited book (Paul Dukas: Legacies of a French Musician, Routledge 2019), an article in Twentieth-Century Music, and chapters in edited volumes.
My current research focuses on women, gender, and music in Ireland. Recent publications include the coedited volume Women and Music in Ireland (Boydell, 2022) and an article on feminist musical activism. Beyond academia, I am a co-founder of the Working Group established in 2017. Sounding the Feminists is a volunteer group which campaigns for gender equality in the music sector across Ireland and has established partnerships with organisations such as the National Concert Hall and Contemporary Music Centre. I am also a named Research Collaborator on the international AHRC funded Women's Musical Leadership Online Network (WMLON), led by PI Laura Hamer (Open University) and co-I Helen Julia Minors (Kingston University).
In contemporary popular music culture, I study the phenomenon of rock and pop memoirs. Recent publications include an article on Bruce Springsteen's memoir franchise and reviews of books by Sinéad O'Connor and Bono.
In the area of French music. I published a monograph on Dukas (Paul Dukas: Composer and Critic, Boydell 2019), a coedited book (Paul Dukas: Legacies of a French Musician, Routledge 2019), an article in Twentieth-Century Music, and chapters in edited volumes.
I welcome enquiries from potential MA / MLitt / PhD students / postdoctoral candidates seeking to work on the above topics.
Research Interests
Women, gender, and music in the 20th and 21st centuries, especially women and music in Ireland; women and popular music
Popular music, especially rock/pop memoirs
Music and text cultures in the 19th, 20th, 21st centuries, especially Paul Dukas; music criticism; France, 1870 - 1940; popular music and memoirs
Popular music, especially rock/pop memoirs
Music and text cultures in the 19th, 20th, 21st centuries, especially Paul Dukas; music criticism; France, 1870 - 1940; popular music and memoirs
Research Projects
Book
Year | Publication | |
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2019 | Laura Watson (2019) Paul Dukas: Composer and Critic. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. [Link] |
Edited Book
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | Jennifer O'Connor-Madsen, Laura Watson, and Ita Beausang (Ed.). (2022) Women and Music in Ireland. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, | |
2019 | Helen Julia Minors and Laura Watson (Ed.). (2019) Paul Dukas: Legacies of a French Musician. Abingdon: Routledge, [DOI] |
Book Chapter
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | Laura Watson, Jennifer O'Connor-Madsen, and Ita Beausang (2022) 'Introduction' In: Women and Music in Ireland. Woodbridge : Boydell & Brewer. | |
2020 | Watson L. (2020) 'Don’t believe a word?: Memoirs of irish rock musicians' In: Made in Ireland: Studies in Popular Music. [DOI] | |
2023 | Laura Watson (2023) 'Sounding the Feminists: Campaigning for Institutional Change to Support Women in Music in Contemporary Ireland' In: The Routledge Companion to Women in Musical Leadership: the Nineteenth Century and Beyond. New York : Routledge. | |
2022 | Laura Watson (2022) 'Composers with Whom Debussy Was Associated' In: Debussy in Context. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. | |
2019 | Watson, L (2019) 'Reading lyrics, hearing prose: Morrissey's Autobiography' In: MUSIC, MEMORY AND MEMOIR. NEW YORK : BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC. | |
2022 | Laura Watson (2022) 'Rhoda Coghill and the Gender Politics of Piano Performance' In: Women and Music in Ireland. Woodbridge : Boydell & Brewer. | |
2019 | Watson L. (2019) 'Dukas, critical conversations, and intellectual legacies' In: Paul Dukas: Legacies of a French Musician. Abingdon : Routledge. [DOI] | |
2020 | Laura Watson (2020) 'Don't Believe A Word? Memoirs of Irish Rock Musicians' In: Made in Ireland: Studies in Popular Music. Abingdon : Routledge. | |
2019 | Helen Julia Minors and Laura Watson (2019) 'Introducing Dukas's Legacy' In: Paul Dukas: Legacies of a French Musician. Abingdon : Routledge. [Link] | |
2019 | Laura Watson (2019) 'Reading Lyrics, Hearing Prose: Morrissey's Autobiography' In: Music, Memory and Memoir. London : Bloomsbury Academic. [Link] [DOI] | |
2015 | Dr Laura Watson (2015) 'Ireland in the Musical Imagination of Third Republic France' In: France and Ireland: Notes and Narratives. Bern : Peter Lang. [Full-Text] |
Peer Reviewed Journal
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | Watson L. (2022) 'Born to Run: The Transmedia Evolution of the Bruce Springsteen Memoir from Book to Stage and Screen'. Popular Music and Society, 45 (22):279-200. [DOI] | |
2022 | Laura Watson (2022) 'Feminist Musical Activism in Ireland (2016 - 21) and Feminist Musicology'. Ethnomusicology Ireland, (8):1-22. [Link] https://www.ictm.ie/feminist-musical-activism-in-ireland-2016-21-and-feminist-musicology-laura-watson/ | |
2018 | Watson, L (2018) 'Fifty Shades of Bluebeard? Dukas's Ariane et Barbe-Bleue in the Twenty-First Century'. Twentieth-Century Music, 15 (3):399-438. [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2016 | Laura Watson (2016) 'Epitaph for a Musician: Rhoda Coghill as Pianist, Composer and Poet'. Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, 11 :2-21. [Link] https://doi.org/10.35561/JSMI11151 [Full-Text] | |
2010 | Watson, L (2010) 'Dukas's 'Victory': a cultural and political reading of a post-WW1 manuscript'. Musical Times, 151 :53-70. [Full-Text] |
Conference Contribution
Other Journal
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | Laura Watson (2022) 'One Voice, Many Paths' Journal of Music, . [Link] https://journalofmusic.com/opinion/one-voice-many-paths | |
2022 | Laura Watson (2022) 'A Limited Edition' Journal of Music, . [Link] | |
2021 | Laura Watson (2021) 'A Gripping Memoir Woven Through With Trauma' Journal of Music, . [Link] https://journalofmusic.com/opinion/gripping-memoir-woven-through-trauma | |
2020 | Laura Watson (2020) 'Unguarded Voice' Revista de Nutrici\'on Cl\'\inica y Metabolismo, . [Link] https://journalofmusic.com/focus/unguarded-voice | |
2018 | Laura Watson (2018) 'Hard Questions Matter' Journal of Music, . [Link] https://journalofmusic.com/criticism/hard-questions-matter | |
2017 | Laura Watson (2017) 'A Fractured History for Fractured Arts' Journal of Music, . [Link] | |
2017 | Laura Watson (2017) 'Gothic Outsiders' Journal of Music, . [Link] https://journalofmusic.com/criticism/fractured-history-fractured-arts | |
2015 | Dr Laura Watson (2015) 'Sexism and the Leaving Cert. Music Syllabus' Journal of Music, . [Link] [Full-Text] |
Book Review
Year | Publication | |
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2020 | Watson, L (2020) Bird of Time: The Music of Swan Hennessy. OXFORD: BREV [DOI] | |
2020 | Laura Watson (2020) Review. Axel Klein, Bird of Time: The Music of Swan Hennessy. BREV https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/gcaa052 | |
2015 | Laura Watson (2015) Words and Notes in the Long Nineteenth Century. NEW YORK: BREV [DOI] | |
2015 | Watson, L (2015) O'Kelly: An Irish Musical Family in Nineteenth-Century France. EDINBURGH: BREV [DOI] | |
2015 | Laura Watson (2015) Review. Phyllis Weliver and Katharine Ellis: Words and Notes in the Long Nineteenth Century. BREV http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1479409814000573 [Full-Text] | |
2015 | Laura Watson (2015) Review. Axel Klein: O'Kelly - An Irish Musical Family in Nineteenth-Century France. BREV [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2008 | Dr Laura Watson (2008) Review. Simon-Pierre Perret and Marie-Laure Ragot: Paul Dukas. BREV [Full-Text] |
Invited papers
Year | Publication | |
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2020 | Laura Watson (2020) Invited guest contributor to Made in Ireland book launch. Gave a short presentation about my chapter. INVP | |
2019 | Laura Watson (2019) Sounding the Feminists: Campaigning for Gender Equality in the Irish Music Sector. INVP | |
2017 | Laura Watson (2017) Nina Simone, WAX ON series. Guest Speaker on panel. INVP [Link] https://www.mixcloud.com/Improvised_Music_Company/wax-on-podcast-nina-simone/ | |
2017 | Laura Watson, Jennifer O'Connor-Madsen, Ita Beausang (2017) Saluting the Feminists. Panel Discussion at Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. INVP [Link] http://www.tara.tcd.ie/handle/2262/79729 |
Invited Seminars
Editorial
Year | Publication | |
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2019 | Minors H.; Watson L. (2019) Introducing Dukas's legacy. ED [DOI] |
Media
Year | Publication | |
---|---|---|
2019 | Laura Watson, Patrick Geoghegan, Wofgang Marx, Susan McClary, Rachel Talbot (2019) Talking History, Newstalk FM. Programme on Bizet. MEDIA [Link] https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/highlights-from-talking-history/george-bizet-life-music | |
2019 | Laura Watson (2019) Interviewed about Dukas monograph for Music Matters on BBC Radio 3. MEDIA [Link] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004lv3 | |
2018 | Laura Watson (2018) Interviewed for RTÉ Radio 1 Arena. MEDIA [Link] https://www.rte.ie/radio1/arena/programmes/2018/1112/1010461-arena-monday-12-november-2018/?clipid=102975939 | |
2019 | Laura Watson (2019) Interviewed for Culture File, Lyric FM, RTÉ. MEDIA [Link] https://soundcloud.com/soundsdoable/culture-file-resounding-the |
Electronic Publication
Year | Publication | |
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2011 | Dr Laura Watson (2011) Edition: Francophone Music Criticism Network, Collection 12, 'Paul Dukas: Writings (1892-1894)' (1893 edition). ELECP [Link] | |
2010 | Watson, Laura (2010) Edition: Francophone Music Criticism Network, Collection 12, 'Paul Dukas: Writings (1892-1894)' (1892 edition). ELECP [Link] |
Podcast
Year | Publication | |
---|---|---|
2020 | Laura Watson, Karen Power, Ann Cleare, Ciara L. Murphy, Evonne Ferguson (2020) Contemporary Music Centre 'Amplify' Podcast, #10: Sounding the Feminists. Dublin: PODCAST [Link] https://www.cmc.ie/amplify/episode-10-STF |
Online Multimedia
Year | Publication | |
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2019 | O'Neill, S; Watson, L. (2019) 'I should be so lucky: doing the academic locomotion with Kylie', RTE Brainstorm. ONMM [Link] |
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2023) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.
Professional Associations
Honors and Awards
Committees
Consultancy
Outreach Activities
Description | |
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Interviewed about Resound: Chamber Series (National Concert Hall and Sounding the Feminists) for Culture File programme on Lyric FM. Broadcast November 2019. | |
RTÉ Lyric FM. Contributor to RTÉ Lyric FM Series 'Women of Note', which has been aired at least twice since the original broadcast in 2012. | |
Co-curator (on behalf of Sounding the Feminists) with the National Concert Hall of Chamber Series, 2018 - 19 and 2019 - 20. Series funded by Creative Ireland and NCH. [Link] | |
Facilitator of IMRO-sponsored Sounding the Feminists (STF) Workshop: 'Writing about Music for the Public'. Chaired discussion between panel of six speakers and large public audience. [Link] | |
Talking History: live radio show and podcast. Studio contributor to full hour-long episode about the French composer Georges Bizet. Live episode broadcast 24 February 2019. | |
RTÉ Radio 1. Interviewed for 'Arena' programme regardomg work on the co-curated National Concert Hall and Sounding the Feminists Chamber Series. Originally broadcast on 12 November 2018. [Link] | |
BBC Radio 3 guest. Interviewed by Tom Service for the programme 'Music Matters', in a segment about my Paul Dukas book. Broadcast on Saturday 27 April 2019. Now available as podcast. [Link] | |
Sounding the Feminists: Working Group established in 2017 to campaign for gender equality in music. 2017 - present: Elected to the Working Group as Education Officer in 2017. 2018 - present: Five-year funded partnership between NCH and STF, funded by Creative Ireland. Co-curating NCH & STF Chamber Music Series. Focused on the history of women's composition, this series marks a new departure for classical music in Ireland. Committee member for Sounding the Feminists Symposium on Women in Popular and Traditional Music in Ireland, held at DkIT in November 2017. This event was open to all and featured academics, activists, practitioners, students. Consulted with state bodies such as the Arts Council on the development of equality and diversity policy. Media: contributor to RTÉ Radio 1 Arena programme, November 2018. Significant media coverage of Sounding the Feminists' work and influence: Irish Times, Examiner, Journal of Music, Totally Dublin, Women's Podcast, RTÉ Arena. |
Teaching Interests
Music history; musicology; twentieth-century music; jazz; popular music; women in music; music and gender; music and Ireland in the twentieth century.