I am a PhD student at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where I have been teaching since 2014. My research focus is on popular music, popular culture and digital media in Nigeria and South Africa. My PhD project is titled “Afrobeats – celebrity, entrepreneurship and pop music in Nigeria”. Between 2016 and 2019, I conducted seven months of field research in Lagos. Besides research, I have more than ten years of experience in DJing, algorithmic composition and building electronic musical instruments.
Latest Publications:
African Popular Culture Enters the Global Mainstream (w/ Matthias Krings) (2020). Current History 119 (817): 182–187.
PDF: https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/119/817/182/110433/African-Popular-Culture-Enters-the-Global Pirates or entrepreneurs? Informal music distributors and the Nigerian recording industry crisis (2020). African Identities 18: 329-345.
Contact:
Tom Simmert
Forum universitatis 6
55099 Mainz
Germany
Tel.: 06131-39-20640
Fax: 06131-39 23730
E-Mail
Research Project: