Dr. Elaine Kelly

Biography

Elaine Kelly studied at Maynooth University where she earned a BA in Music, followed by an MA in Twentieth-Century Music and a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast. Her research extensively examines the intersections of music, culture, and politics in the context of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and post-Wende East Germany. Currently, she is engaged in a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship project that aims to culminate in a book titled 'Music Anti-Imperialist Solidarities: East Germany and the World'. Her publications include significant works such as 'Composing the Canon of the German Democratic Republic: Narratives of Nineteenth-Century Music' (Oxford University Press, 2014), and she has edited volumes like 'Art Lines: New Perspectives on GDR Art and Culture' (Rodopi, 2011) and 'Confronting the National Musical Past' (Routledge, 2018). Kelly has contributed articles to various prestigious journals including the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Opera Quarterly, and Music & Letters. Her current research delves into the role of music as a political tool and explores the musical contexts of political relationships fostered by the GDR with postcolonial countries such as Cambodia and Egypt. She is also involved in supervising PhD students in topics related to Transnational/Global Music History and International Socialism.

Research Interests