Project description
When spirituality fuels the beat
In popular music, women’s creative voices are often framed through a lens of sexuality, leaving little room for their spiritual experiences. Yet for many, spirituality fuels artistic expression, shaping identity and reshaping the music itself. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SHE-SHE project explores this overlooked connection, focusing on how women use spirituality to drive creativity in genres like metal and hip-hop. Through interviews and case studies, the project will analyse lyrics, performances, and production processes using interdisciplinary tools and religious studies theory. The research gives visibility to women’s spiritual artistry, offering a fresh perspective on how music becomes a powerful space for self-expression, resistance, and transformation.
Objective
This research examines the ways in which creativity can be expanded through spirituality in women’s contributions to popular music. Women’s spiritual explorations bring together some of the most important political and religious dimensions of contemporary life, but their research treatment remains confined to the status of sexualized Other. This research focuses on the unvetted artistic languages women use to express spirituality to yield a new understanding of the role of spirituality on creativity and the contributions of women as creative agents, analyzing metal and hip-hop music to understand: 1) the interrelation of spirituality with women’s identity, 2) how spirituality affects their perceptions of the music as a dialectical language, and 3) the influence that spirituality has on their creativity and production processes. The researcher will implement an interdisciplinary methodology to analyze 10 case studies and carry out 10 interviews with musicians. These techniques will be leveraged by theoretical considerations for studying religions, including Critical Discursive Study of Religion -developed by Prof. Hjelm- to guide a discursive analysis of lyrics and performances. The study will contribute to making women’s artistic spiritual practice visible, expanding understanding of the articulation between spirituality, identity, and creativity in popular music through a comprehensive analytical perspective that includes the musical process as a whole. To ensure the successful implementation of this project, the researcher will conduct the study at the University of Helsinki with the guidance of Prof. Hjelm, a leading scholar in the field of religious studies. The MSCA Fellowship will prepare the researcher to be competitive at the international level for advanced funding, strengthening her academic profile, and allow her to conduct subsequent follow-up studies in art education based on her findings.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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00014 Helsinki
Finland
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