The Social Geography course at Newcastle University wants to study the geography of heavy metal.
Newcastle University in Australia has announced a scholarship position with a research focus on heavy metal.
Three different doctoral scholarships are offered, two for Australians and one for international students. Each is worth approximately R$73,000 per year to study the anthropology of marginalized cultures in society. The theses should study the emergence of heavy metal in the northern hemisphere and how the genre arrived in Australia.
The study project has already been developed and presents seven central questions to be answered about heavy metal: “What themes have the lyrics of Australian metal bands adopted?”; “Are they culturally and geographically unique to the continent?”; “What is the relationship between the cultural evolution of heavy metal in Australia and colonialism?”; “Is Australian heavy metal a predominantly white phenomenon? What has been the response to diversity in the scene?”; “How is the genre viewed within the Australian metal scene?”; “What is the reputation that metal fans have within the Australian context? Does this impact the type of spaces that fans want to use?”; “How has the country's geography, compared to other scenes, contributed to or hindered its cultural acceptance?”; and “What is it about Australian heavy metal that makes it so distinctive?”.
Simon Springer, the course director, spoke about the opportunity. “As a lifelong metal fan who has recently begun studying the subject, I thought it would be a good starting point to bring my research closer to the field. And of course, when I was a student, I would have loved for someone to tell me that studying heavy metal is academically valid.”
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