​Jessica Lowe-Mbirimi

PhD Project 

Peace, Culture and Creativity: Performance as a vehicle for transformation among Zimbabweans from independence to now. How does cultural heritage and music shape or transform present and future perspectives of freedom and peace in Zimbabwe, across Africa and the diaspora? This study will focus on the role traditional instruments like mbira have had on shaping notions of identity and peace.

Supervisors

• Dr Gloriana Rodriguez Alvarez, African Leadership Centre

• Dr Priyanka Basu, Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries

Research Keywords

Peace Ontologies, Cultural heritage, Traditional Music​

Professional Biography

Jessica Lowe-Mbirimi is a British Jamaican-Zimbabwean anthropologist, educator and curator. Her research aims to study the relationship between cultural heritage, music and peace among Zimbabweans with a focus on post-independence. She will explore how communities navigate their postcolonial realities with reference to traditional music. Her work will explore Peace Ontologies, Oral History, Material Culture and Ethnomusicology with reference to the instrument mbira. She has previously worked with organisations such as Black Cultural Archives and The Africa Centre and published with INIVA and UAL Decolonising Arts Institute. She holds a MSc in African Studies with Heritage (UCL) which explored the relationship between commemoration and Contemporary Nigerian Art. Her BA thesis in Social Anthropology (UKC) explored the relationship between Rastafarianism, Reggae and Dancehall in Jamaica and Japan.​