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dr. KJ (Kristina) Kolbe

Biography

Kristina is an Assistant Professor in Sociology of Arts and Culture at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. She joined ESHCC after completing her PhD in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science and working as a postdoctoral researcher in Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. Overall, her work explores how intersectional inequalities of ‘race’, class and gender are reworked in and through culture, ranging from wider cultural discourses of migration, citizenship and belonging to concrete processes of material culture, media representations, creative labour and cultural production. Her particular research interests lie in the field of music and its relationship to urban multiculture, and in the contingent social effects of on-going diversity and inclusion discourses in the cultural industries, as well as in the relationship between a politics of cultural production and a politics of care. Kristina’s work draws from current debates in sociology, cultural studies, critical ‘race’ and migration scholarship and is informed by Feminist and postcolonial epistemologies. 

 

Publications

Books

(2024) The Sound of Difference: Race, Class and the Politics of Diversity in Classical Music. Manchester University Press.

(Working manuscript) Cultures of Care? The Politics of Creative Work in an Unequal World.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue on ‘Gender, Sexuality, and State Violence: International Perspectives on Institutional and Intersectional Justice’. Societies (forthcoming). [with Ladan Rahbari, Conny Roggeband]

Making Genre: The Aesthetic Affordances of Governmental Funding and its Effects on Emerging Interdisciplinary Artists in the Netherlands. Cultural Trends (conditionally accepted). [with Sofia Viera]

‘The Art of (Self)Legitimation: How Private Museum Founders Narrate Themselves as Elite Actors in and Beyond the Art World’. Socio-Economic Review, 2023.

The Global Rise of Private Art Museums: A Literature Review. Poetics, 2022. [with Johannes Aengenheyster, Andrea Friedmann Rozenbaum, Olav Velthuis, Mingxue Zhang]

An Institutional Politics of Place: Rethinking the Critical Function of Art in Times of Growing Inequality. Cultural Sociology, 2022. [with Chris Upton-Hansen and Mike Savage]

Producing (Musical) Difference: Power, Practices and Inequalities in Diversity Initiatives in Germany’s Classical Music Sector. Cultural Sociology, 2022; originally published online in 2021.

Unequal Entanglements: How Arts Practitioners Reflect on the Impact of Intensifying Economic Inequality. Cultural Trends, 2022. originally published online in 2021.

Playing the System: ‘Race”-Making and Elitism in Diversity Projects in Germany’s Classical Music Sector’. Poetics, 2021.

Figures of Crisis: The Delineation of Un/Deserving Refugees in Germany. Sociology 52(3): 534-550, 2018. [with Billy Holzberg and Rafal Zaborowski]

Book Chapters

‘Western’ Classical Music, Diversity Work, and its Colonial Imprints: Challenges, Limits, and New Directions’. In: Johnson-Williams, Erin; Kok, Roe-Min; Liao, Yvonne (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Music Colonialism. Forthcoming at Oxford University Press (forthcoming).

‘(Un)settling Hegemonies – The Institutional Challenge of Diversity Initiatives in the Classical Music Sector’. In: Bull, Anna; Nooshin, Laudan; Scharff, Cristina (eds.) The Classical Music Profession: Inequalities and Exclusions. Oxford University Press, 2023.

Book Reviews

‘Music Generations in the Digital Age: Social Practices of Listening and Idols in Japan Communications’. European Journal of Communication Research (forthcoming).

‘Black Utopias: Speculative Life and the Music of Other Worlds’. Ethnic and Racial Studies (2021).

‘Access, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Cultural Organizations: Insights from the Careers of Executive Opera Managers of Color in the US’. Journal of Arts Management, Law, & Society, 51(4): 270-272 (2021).

‘Entitled: Discriminating Tastes and the Expansion of the Arts’. Cultural Trends, 29(4): 320-322 (2020).

Other writings and selected media outputs

‘Do diversity initiatives in classical music address – or unwittingly reinforce – existing inequalities?’. LSE Inequalities Blog. Blog post (2024).

‘The Sound of Difference: Race, Class and the Politics of ’Diversity’ in Classical Music’. New Books Network podcast. Hosted by Dave O’Brien (2024).

‘Beyond the Global Boom. Private Art Museums in the 21st Century’. Public Report. University of Amsterdam () [with Olav Velthuis, Johannes Aengenheyster, Andrea Friedmann Rozenbaum] (2023).

‘Report on the art world’s response to the challenge of inequality’. LSE Research Online () [with Chris Upton-Hansen, Mike Savage, Nicola Lacey, and Sarah Cant] (2019).

Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication

Assistant professor | Department of Arts and Culture Studies
Email
kolbe@eshcc.eur.nl

More information

Work

  • Ladan Rahbari, Conny Roggeband & Kristina Kolbe (2025) - - Societies, 15 (4) - doi: -
  • Sofia Vieira & Kristina Kolbe (2025) - - Cultural Trends - doi: -
  • Kristina Kolbe (2024) - -
  • Kristina Kolbe, Ladan Rahbari & Conny Roggeband (2024) - - Societies -
  • Kristina Kolbe (2024) -
  • Kristina Kolbe (2023) - - Socio-Economic Review, 22 (3), 1119-1140 - doi: -
  • Olav Velthuis, Kristina Kolbe, Johannes Aengenheyster, Andrea Friedmann Rozenbaum, Marton Gera & Mingxue Zhang (2023) - -
  • Kristina Kolbe, Olav Velthuis, Johannes Aengenheyster, Andrea Friedmann Rozenbaum & Mingxue Zhang (2022) - - Poetics, 95 - doi:
  • Kristina Kolbe (2022) - - Cultural Sociology, 16 (2), 231-249 - doi:
  • Kristina Kolbe (2021) - - Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45 (13), 2572-2574 - doi:
  • Kristina Kolbe (2021) - - Cultural Trends, 31 (3), 257-272 - doi:
  • Kristina Kolbe (2021) - - Poetics. Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts(online), 87 - doi:
  • Kristina Kolbe (2021) - - Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, 51 (4), 270-272 -
  • Christopher Upton-Hansen, Kristina Kolbe & Mike Savage (2020) - - Cultural Sociology, 15 (2), 171-190 - doi:
  • Kristina Kolbe (2020) - - Cultural Trends, 29 (4), 320-322 - doi:
  • Kristina Kolbe, Chris Upton-Hansen, Mike Savage, Nicola Lacey & Sarah Cant (2020) - -
  • Billy Holzberg, Kristina Kolbe & Rafael Zaborowski (2018) - - Sociology, 52 (3), 534-550 - doi:

    • Kristina Kolbe (2024) - Leisure Studies (Journal) (Reviewer)
      Activity: Editorial work Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2024) - Reflecting on elite enablers (Speaker)
      Activity: Invited talk Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2024) - Sociology Compass (Journal) (Reviewer)
      Activity: Editorial work Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2024) - the international workshop ‘Elite leisure and consumption’ (Organiser)
      Activity: Organising and contributing to an event Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2023) - MeCCSA 2023 conference (Organiser)
      Activity: Organising and contributing to an event Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2023) - Private museums and elite legitimation (Speaker)
      Activity: Invited talk Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2023) - Rethinking Cultural Work through a Politics of Care (Speaker)
      Activity: Invited talk Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2023) - The Return of the Medici? Economic elites, museums and the art of (self)legitimization (Speaker)
      Activity: Invited talk Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2022) - How Private Museum founders represent themselves as elite actors in an unequal world (Speaker)
      Activity: Invited talk Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2021) - Cultural Sociology (Journal) (Member of editorial board)
      Activity: Editorial work Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2021) - The governmentality of arts funding from austerity to privatization (Speaker)
      Activity: Invited talk Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2021) - Theorising Creative Labour (Speaker)
      Activity: Invited talk Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2021) - Ungleichheit, Teilhabe und Evaluation im Konzertbetrieb (Speaker)
      Activity: Invited talk Professional
    • Kristina Kolbe (2020) - From representation to production: the politics of cultural work (Speaker)
      Activity: Invited talk Academic
    • Kristina Kolbe (2019) - European Journal of Cultural Studies (Journal) (Reviewer)
      Activity: Editorial work Academic

    • Kristina Kolbe (2024) - Visiting Research Fellow
    • Kristina Kolbe (2023) - Early Career Fellowship
    • Kristina Kolbe (2023) - NWO veni grant
    • Kristina Kolbe (2022) - CUS SAGE PRIZE
    • Kristina Kolbe (2019) - Marshall Institute small grant funding
    • Kristina Kolbe (2014) - Carlo Schmid Fellowship of the German Academic Exchange Service (working at UNESCO)
    • Kristina Kolbe (2009) - Fellow of the German National Merit Foundation (now alumni)

    London School of Economics and Political Science

    Start date approval
    August 2024
    End date approval
    August 2026
    Place
    LONDON
    Description
    This is a research fellowship without fees/hours

    News regarding dr. KJ (Kristina) Kolbe

    Kristina Kolbe publishes book "The sound of difference" on diversity in classical music

    On 25 June 2024, Dr Kristina Kolbe published her first book: “The sound of difference: race, class and the politics of ‘diversity’ in classical music”.
    Portrait of Kristina Kolbe

    Twelve Veni grants for Rotterdam researchers

    Twelve scientists from ֱ and Erasmus MC will receive Veni funding from the NWO to further develop their research ideas.
    Sunny day on campus Woudestein.

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