Dr Morag Josephine Grant
Sabbatical Fellow, January - July 2026
Home institution: University of Edinburgh
M. J. Grant is a Chancellor’s Fellow in Music at the University of Edinburgh’s Reid School of Music. A musicologist whose work combines sociological, anthropological and historical perspectives, her research currently centres on the musicology of war and collective violence, including genocide and torture. Other areas of interest include music and human rights, song studies, music in Scotland, and new and experimental composition in the western art music tradition since 1950. https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/profile/dr-morag-josephine-grant
Project title: The Musical Art of War
During my IASH fellowship I will be continuing work on my third monograph, which develops a theoretical framework for studying and understanding the roles of music in warfare. Specifically, I will be focusing on the final chapters of the book, which address how we tell the story of war through music. As with the book as a whole, my approach is historical and comparative, drawing on ritual theory and work in the sociology and anthropology of violence to understand how the cultural practices of war, especially music, help us navigate the complex trauma of war. This topic connects to the theme of “Making the nation” in multiple ways: many of the narratives we weave around national origins and national identity are directly connected to war; and in most societies, there is extensive overlap between musical rituals of leadership/the state and the music of war. I am also interested and invested in the topic through my work on music and Scotland, and in the area of song studies — not least since nation states, I would argue, are not just imagined communities, but sung communities.