Ifaliantsoa Ramialison
Biography
Ifa Ramialison obtained her PhD in the field of Cultural studies in 2016 with a thesis about musical expressions of cultural identity in Damon Albarn’s works. Following her graduation from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan (Paris), she went on to study at the the University of Liverpool where she obtained her MA in Popular music studies in 2011.
After working as a teaching and researching assistant at the Université Paris-Sorbonne, Ifa moved to the Netherlands to join the Creative Business programme. Since then, her mission has been to help students become human-centred & globally oriented professionals by developing core competences such as critical thinking or empathy. This is reflected in the courses she has taught, developed and/or coordinated such as the foundational course Humanities which serves as an introduction to human-centred design. In this course, she challenges students to become aware of their own biases and assumptions. Ifa’s interests in Creative Business keeps widening, as testified by her involvement in courses focused on media, communication, research practice and sustainability. Feel free to reach out to her for a (virtual) coffee!
Fields of expertise
- Humanities
- Intercultural communication
- Qualitative Research
Research themes
| Project title | Representations of British cultural identity in Damon Albarn’s music (2000-2012)(PhD dissertation) |
| Keywords | Popular music; cultural identity; Britishness; Britpop; multiculturalism; postcolonialism; Damon Albarn; Britishness |
| Years of completion | 2016 |
| General project description | This study analyses representations of British cultural identity in Damon Albarn's music. Albarn became a household name with Blur, an English band that was associated with the Britpop movement in the 1990s. Britpop openly articulated popular music and the question of Britishness which was defined in exclusive terms as most Britpop artists were white, male, guitar-based, English bands.By focusing on Albarn’s various musical projects after the end of Britpop, the aim is to understand how its aesthetics and politics are de-constructed. At the turn of the century, Albarn distanced himself with the exclusive rhetoric of Britpop as he started to express a more inclusive, multicultural understanding of British identity. Through three different case studies, it is contended that Albarn’s understanding of British cultural identity is predicated on specific music genres and their own sets of discourse. The study spans over a period of twelve years marked by a renewed interest in Britishness as the multicultural model in British politics is questioned, new countries join the European Union and more devolution for Scotland is discussed. The last part of the study focuses on Albarn’s involvement in the Cultural Olympiad in 2012 and serves to show how music works as a medium that allows the articulation of contrasted, and at times, contradictory representations of British cultural identity. |
| Your Role in project | Primary researcher |
Key publications
Scholarly publications
- Ramialison, I. (2015). British Identity in Damon Albarn’s Dr Dee: An English Opera. Volume!, 112(1), 85-99.
Qualifications
- Fundamentals of digital marketing – Google (2021)
- Exploring Culture through Data: digital methods & data practices – Utrecht Data School (2020)
- Didactische Bekwaamheid HBO – HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (2019)
- Doctor of Philosophy – PhD, Cultural Studies – Université Paris- Est (2016)
- Doctoral Course in Management - Ecole des Ponts Business School (2014)
- Master of Arts Popular Music Studies – University of Liverpool (2011)
- Bachelor of Arts English Language and Literature – Ecole Normale Supérieure Cachan