Dr Gabrielle Messeder

Academic Subject(s): Music

Background

I completed my doctoral research on Brazilian music and dance in Lebanon at City, University of London, in 2023, under the supervision of Professor Laudan Nooshin. Between 2017 and 2022, I conducted ten months of ethnographic fieldwork in Lebanon for my thesis, “Obrigada, Shukran: Brazilian Musical Encounters in Beirut.” In this research, I examined how sociopolitical anxieties surrounding gender, ethnicity, and race—as well as issues of cultural conservatism, exoticism, and stereotyping—shaped the production, performance, and reception of Brazilian music and dance in postcolonial Beirut. 

Prior to joining Merton, I was a visiting lecturer in Music at Goldsmiths and City, University of London, and a Research Fellow at the University of Greenwich on the AHRC-funded project ‘Exploring cultural diversity in experimental sound’ (2021-23). Additionally, I taught classical piano and music theory (and occasionally percussion and singing) in primary and secondary schools. I have also performed Brazilian and West African music as a singer and percussionist for many years. 

Teaching

I deliver tutorials for the undergraduate subject papers ‘Foundations in the Study of Music’, ‘Musical Thought and Scholarship’, ‘Women in Popular Music’, ‘Music and Pleasure’ and ‘African Jazz Perspectives’. I also currently act as Director of Studies to second and third-year undergraduates and as College Advisor to Music DPhil students. 

Research

My current research examines the social, economic, and creative importance of rodas de samba in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A roda de samba is a traditional, participatory form of samba performance in which musicians—playing a combination of stringed and percussion instruments—gather around a table in a circle (roda) to play and sing together. Dozens of rodas take place across the city every day, in bars, community centres, backyards, and on the street. Audience participation—through clapping, singing, and dancing—is crucial. More than just a ‘gig’, a roda de samba can be a space of conviviality, catharsis, or celebration of collective identity—often all three. 

Since beginning ethnographic fieldwork in December 2024, I have been exploring the central role these musical gatherings play in the everyday lives of communities in Rio’s zona norte: a sprawling network of predominantly working-class suburbs in the northern part of the city. Through interviews, participant-observation and intersectional analyses of lyrics, musical practices, performance styles, and musicians’ life stories, I investigate the affective and emotional power of rodas de samba, as well as how they create and sustain social networks, contribute to and generate local economies, and enrich sociocultural life in a context often marked by extreme violence, economic inequality, and political and religious tensions. A further consideration is how these events contribute to constructions of contemporary Brazilian gender roles, particularly forms of masculinity.