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Juan Carlos Méndez Álvarez awarded KVNM 2024 Hélène Noltenius Prize

Thursday 12 September 2024
Juan Carlos Mendez Alvarez

Juan Carlos Mendez Alvarez

Congratulations to doctoral student Juan Carlos Méndez Álvarez who has won the 2024 Hélène Noltenius Prize.

Awarded by the Royal Society for Music History of The Netherlands (founded as Vereeniging voor Nederlandsche Muziekgeschiedenis and designated as 'Koninklijk' (Royal) in 1994), the KVNM is The Netherlands' professional association of musicologists. Juan Carlos Méndez Álvarez won the prize for his MA thesis, entitled "Hauntologies of Music in Latin American Cinema", in which he proposes a special method (the hauntological method) to study the role of music in Latin American cinema and analyzes the soundtracks of three recent films: Lucrecia Martel's Zama (2017), Pablo Larraín's Ema (2019), and Alfonso Cuarón's Roma (2019). Under the supervision of Professor Jason Stanyek, Juan Carlos continues to explore Latin American film music from the perspective of hauntology for his doctoral thesis.

Find out more on the KVNM website.

Professor Naomi Waltham Smith

In concert: how shared wonder opens our minds

12 November 2026
How can shared experiences of music, art and natural beauty expand our imagination and help us better understand each other? Professor Naomi Waltham-Smith explores how moments of shared aesthetic attention can amplify our sense of curiosity and wonder, bringing our imaginative lives into our relationships with others.
Professor Peter Asimov

Professor Peter Asimov awarded SMT Emerging Scholar Award

09 November 2026
Professor Asimov's article 'The Melakartas and the ‘République Modale’: Naturalizing Indian Scales in French Musical Modernism' wins the Emerging Scholar Award at this year's Society for Music Theory annual meeting.
Professor Nomi Dave

Listening to the Law research network

09 November 2026
Professor Nomi Dave is co-directing a new research network, with Professor Nicole Stremlau (Faculty of Law) and Dr Tareeq Jalloh (Faculty of Philosophy). The network, Listening to the Law, is funded through TORCH for three years. It brings together academics, students, legal practitioners, artists, and others working on questions of sound and the law. To join the network or attend events, please email listening.law@torch.ox.ac.uk