Dr. Darci Sprengel

Biography

Darci Sprengel joined King’s College London in 2022 as a Lecturer in the Music Industry. Prior to this, she served as an Assistant Professor of Popular Music at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and held a Junior Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford. Her teaching experience spans several institutions, including the University of Groningen, University of Oxford, Beloit College, American University of Cairo, and University of California, Los Angeles, where she focused on topics related to global music industries, sound, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Sprengel holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology with a concentration in Gender Studies from UCLA, along with bachelor’s degrees in Viola Performance and Arabic/Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan. Her research interests encompass global music industries, popular musics, critical race and feminist approaches, algorithmic bias, and ethnographic methods, particularly within the context of the Southwest Asia and North Africa regions. She is currently investigating imperial power dynamics in the globalization of music streaming platforms and their implications for non-Western musicians. Dr. Sprengel’s work critically examines issues of representation and digital inequality in music distribution, while aiming to develop ethical and inclusive digital music technologies based on sustained ethnographic research with users and industry professionals.

Research Interests

Experience