Draft:Razia Sultanova

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Dr Razia Sultanova.(Uzbekistan/UK) is an ethnomusicologist, dutar performer and cultural anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, and a leading international expert specialising in the study of Central Asian music in its social and cultural contexts.

Sultanova is an Uzbek with part Tatar heritage, born in Vladivostok during the time of the Soviet Union, who grew up in Ferghana Valley (Uzbekistan), witnessing many forms of traditional music and rituals from a young age. She dedicated her life to their recording and in-depth study, helping to preserve this valuable heritage for future generations. Upon graduating from the Uzbek State Conservatory in Tashkent, she completed her PhD at the Moscow State Conservatory, where she was awarded the position of Visiting Professor. During her postgraduate work at the Moscow Arts Study Institute, Razia developed theory of music relating to the centuries-old Central Asian court music culture of Shashmaqam, resulting in her monograph on Rhythm of Shashmaqam (1988).

Following her editorial roles at the Union of the Soviet Composers and the Russian Institute of Arts Studies in Moscow, she moved to UK in 1994, where she has been working at the University of London and since 2008, at the University of Cambridge.

Sultanova is the author of five books and five edited volumes (in Russian, French and English) on Central Asian and Middle Eastern music and gender, and music and Islam. She is internationally known for her work in the fields of religious belief and cultural heritage of Central Asian music and dance, in its theoretical and methodical approaches, with particular focus on the role of women. Her work over the years has been enabled by more than twenty grants and fellowships at the CCIA, AHRC, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Société Française d'ethnomusicologie, Institut Français d'Etudes sur l'Asie Centrale, the British Council and the British Academy, among others. Razia Sultanova has been at the forefront of introducing and raising profile of traditional Central Asian music among international audiences through her numerous lectures, talks, articles, dutar performances, TV and radio interviews, as well as books, recordings and collaborations. One such collaboration with Peter Wiegold took place at the BBC Proms in 2007, where Sultanova secured UK's first public appearance for a group of Karnay musicians from Tashkent, performing alongside The Coldstream Guards and other groups of European brass instruments. She has also organised numerous concerts and workshops showcasing traditional Uzbek music and renowned Uzbek musicians at academic institutions and cultural venues in the UK and across the world.

Sultanova is an internationally recognised musicologist and social scientist, whose body of scholarly works spans over 40 years of research. The direct access she receives as a native female into the hidden from public eye Islamic female quarters of households across Central Asia, and her professional relationships with performers, instrument makers and musicians across the region help her maintain an in-depth insight into the subject of Central Asian music. Through years of her research, study and fieldwork, Sultanova has helped to serve the global music heritage conservation agenda. In 2002, Sultanova assisted Margaret Birley at the Horniman Museum with procuring a collection of more than 100 Central Asian musical instruments, recording accompanying videos of instrument-making and rituals for a collection entitled "The Rhythms of Life", where it remains exhibited as part of the extensive World instrument collection, educating generations of visitors of all ages about the music of Central Asia.

Sultanova has held the post of Vice President of the International Council for Traditional Music from 2015-2019, during which she has organised and coordinated the 43rd ICTM World Conference in Astana (Kazakhstan) with over 600 participants from 70 countries. In 2006, she also founded the ICTM study group on Music of the Turkic-Speaking World, at SOAS, University of London, which she chaired until 2019. She currently chairs the ICTM's study group on Global History of Music.

In 2019, Sultanova was tasked with collating and editing an encyclopaedia entitled Islam & Music of the Turkic Speaking World, in a project supported by Cambridge Muslim College

Having held positions of Research Fellow at Goldsmith's college and at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, Sultanova is currently a Visiting Professor at Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic), as well as at Khoja Ahmet Yassawi Kazakh-Turkish University (Turkistan, Kazakhstan) and at the Kazakh National University of Arts (Nur-Sultan).

Her most recent book published in 2023, entitled: "Afghanistan Dispossessed - Women, Culture and the Taliban", is a result of her archival research around the globe and her fieldwork trip to Afghanistan during times of political upheaval, shedding light on the plight of musicians and women under the Taliban rule.

Sultanova's greatest contribution to Music of Central Asia lies in raising awareness and profile of Central Asian music among audiences and scholars across the globe, and facilitating its proliferation, study and preservation on an international scale. Sultanova has also supported a new generation of musicologists like Tanya Merchant, branching out into the field of Central Asian Music as a Professor and mentor. As a Chair of Study groups on global forums, Sultanova has actively built academic awareness and collaboration around the subject of conservation of musical and traditional cultural heritage of the entire Central Asian region, with her works profiling countries and people groups across the geographical area stretching from Afghanistan to Siberia.

Selected Publications

• "The Rhythms of Shashmaqam"
• "Usul and Rhythm in Shashmaqam"
• "From Shamanism to Sufism: Women Islam and Culture in Central Asia"
• "Sacred Knowledge: Schools or Revelations
• "Turkic Soundscapes: From Shamanic Voices to Hip-Hop."
• "Afghanistan Dispossessed - Women, Culture and the Taliban"

Selected publications in ethnomusicological journals

"Music and Identity in contemporary Central Asia" and guest-editor for "Ethnomusicology Forum", "Entre Femmes", and "Yearbook for Traditional Music" with Timothy Rice.