Tom Simmert
Doctoral Researcher,
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Tom Simmert is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. His research is focused on popular music, popular culture, and digital media in Nigeria and South Africa. For his Ph.D. project on Nigerian Afrobeats, he spent several months in Lagos (between 2015 and 2019), taking part in the daily activities of various actors within the Nigerian music industry.
Tom Simmert primarily contributes to the work in Working Area A: Forms, Formats and Contents, in Working Area B: Legal and Institutional Frameworks, in Project 1.2 on Archival Access and Artistic Creation: Nigerian Film Heritage in the Novelty Spiral and in Project 2.1. on Digital Transformation and Formal Innovation in the Nigerian Music Industry.
My CEDITRAA story
“CEDITRAA gives me the opportunity to continue and extend my research on Afrobeats. My previous work was deliberately limited to the perspective of music industry actors, like artists, producers, or management. I am now looking forward to focussing on their interactions with audiences, fans, and content creators on TikTok and Instagram. Platforms like these have become the main stage for cultural entrepreneurs from Nigeria, South Korea, and other countries, and I am excited to be part of a research project in which we look at this development from a wide variety of methodological and regional angles.”
