I am a Reader in Music in the School of Arts, English and Languages. My main area of research is the history of political music and song. I am currently PI on an AHRC Fellowship on the work of East German Liedermacher Gerhard Gundermann. In my early career I published widely on the relationship between political song, performance and censorship in the former GDR. More recently I have focussed on the role of cultural memory and the reworking of tradition. I was PI in an AHRC and DFG-funded collaboration with the University of Freiburg on the history of reception of songs of the German 1848 revolution (2009-12). This led to the book Songs for a Revolution. The 1848 Protest Song Tradition in Germany (2000) which I co-authored. I also have a strong interest in transnational song, in particular songs that have travelled between Scotland, Ireland and Germany. 

I joined Queen’s in 1999 as a lecturer in German Studies. From 2012-19 I  convened the MA in Arts Management. My current modules include ‘Politics in Popular Song’, 'Radical Musics', 'Songwriting' and 'Work Placement’. I also contribute to 'Music in History, 'Introduction to Music' and 'Dissertation' 

I am a bouzouki-player and previously recorded and toured internationally as a member of the Scottish folk group Rua (1986-88). As a singer/songwriter I toured as support for the Proclaimers on their Sunshine on Leith tour (1988), and also performed at many festivals including Reading (1990). I have released four albums of original songs, Capture an Image (1991), Prussian Blue (1996), Star in the Morning (2005), and Ingo and the Bouncy Castle (2011 – with the Corncrakes). In 2019 I contributed to the CD Gundermann in Europa which featured songs of Gerhard Gundermann in different languages. As part of my AHRC Fellowship I am producing a CD of Gundermann songs in English.