Dr Claire Coleman
Research Methods Lecturer
Dr. Claire Coleman is part of the Academic team at BIMM Music Institute Berlin. She is an Australian musicologist, choral conductor and music teacher. She completed a Bachelor of Music Education at the University of Western Australia in 2005, and returned to studies in 2011 to examine authenticity and relationality in Australian contemporary folk music for her honours thesis.
Claire studied her PhD at Western Sydney University under the supervision of John Encarnacao, Kate Fagan and Diana Blom. Claire's doctoral dissertation, "Hold on, hold on to your old ways: Nostalgia in indie folk", uses multimodal discourse analysis to identify and explore the nostalgic reconstructions that take place in indie folk music. The thesis identifies three recurrent nostalgic themes in indie folk - nature, home, and ontology - and argues that indie folk's nostalgia expresses millennials' concerns surrounding the ongoing status, stability and security of these areas.
Claire continues to work as an independent researcher, and has published several journal articles and book chapters, as well as presenting regularly at conferences. Outside of academia, she has held several roles associated with music performance, education and administration. In particular, she has taught piano in a wide range of school and private studio settings for almost fifteen years, and has directed three pop choirs in Australia and Germany. Currently Claire researches, teaches and conducts in Berlin.
