University of Oxford
Faculty of Music
University of Oxford
Search

Undergraduate student François Cloete receives SMA outstanding paper award

Friday 02 May 2025
250502 francois cloete

François Cloete (Merton College, 2022) has received the outstanding paper award at this year's Society for Music Analysis Theory and Analysis Graduate Student Conference.

The conference was held at Royal Holloway and attracted an international range of speakers at graduate and doctoral level. François was one of only two undergraduates giving a paper.

François's paper, "Transient forms: Tonality and migration politics in Alban Berg's Wozzeck," drew on music analysis and political theory to trace dynamics of exclusion in Berg's opera with contemporary significance. It is soon to be published on the SMA website.

His research was supervised by Professor Naomi Waltham-Smith and Dr Dylan Price and was generously funded by a Summer Research Award at Merton.

Professor Waltham-Smith commented:

The paper is an impressively ambitious fusion of critical theory and musical analysis speaking to contemporary concerns. François worked tremendously hard during last summer vac and this award is wonderful recognition of his achievement.

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