Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Overview
Dr Charulatha Mani, an Indian-Australian performer-musicologist-pedagogue originally from Chennai, is an expert in Karnatik vocal music of Southern India with an avid interest in Early Opera. She was awarded a PhD in historical musicology on ‘Hybridising Karnatik Music and Early Opera: Voice, Word, and Gesture’ from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Brisbane (August 2019). She performs, records, lectures, and publishes widely, and loves to creatively engage with marginalised communities through socially impactful music research projects. Her recent “Sing to Connect” research project explored the role of singing lullabies and storytelling for perinatal mental health and wellbeing in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) new and expectant mothers in Logan, Australia. Charu’s research/teaching interests lie in mapping artistic research processes and their cultural origins to lived experiences of everyday creativities in individuals and communities. She is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). In July, her monograph “Reimagine to revitalise: New approaches to performance practices across cultures” is being launched by Cambridge University Press. Visit Charu's ResearchGate, Google Scholar and YouTube profiles.
Research Impacts
Dr Charu Mani has raised over $60,000 in last year in research funds benefitting the wellbeing of marginalised women through music. In partnering with Metro South Health and Access Community Services, Logan, her work demonstrates effective synergies between communities, industry, and the health sector. She has over 5,00,000 views on her YouTube channel featuring pedagogical videos on Karnatik music of South India.
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, Griffith University
Publications
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Journal Article: The 'becomings': singing and songwriting with mothers and midwives at South-East Queensland
Mani, Charulatha (2022). The 'becomings': singing and songwriting with mothers and midwives at South-East Queensland. Health Promotion International, 37 (Supplement_1), i37-i48. doi: 10.1093/heapro/daac019
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Other Outputs: Hridaya Kamala
Mani, Charulatha (2022). Hridaya Kamala. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: UQ School of Music.
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Other Outputs: Bris Asia Festival: Love Songs
Mani, Charulatha, Wren, Toby and Shreshta, Dheeraj (2022). Bris Asia Festival: Love Songs. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Bris Asia and Sounds Across Oceans.
Publications
Book
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Reimagine to revitalise : New approaches to performance practices across cultures
Mani, Charulatha (2021). Reimagine to revitalise : New approaches to performance practices across cultures. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781108903905
Book Chapter
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Chennai: culture at the cusp of change.
Mani, Charulatha (2020). Chennai: culture at the cusp of change.. Music cities: evaluating a global cultural policy concept . (pp. 103-125) edited by Christina Ballico and Allan Watson. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-35872-3_6
Journal Article
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The 'becomings': singing and songwriting with mothers and midwives at South-East Queensland
Mani, Charulatha (2022). The 'becomings': singing and songwriting with mothers and midwives at South-East Queensland. Health Promotion International, 37 (Supplement_1), i37-i48. doi: 10.1093/heapro/daac019
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Mani, Charulatha (2021). RagAlive: Neelambari. The International Journal of Creative Media Research (6) 1. doi: 10.33008/IJCMR.2020.34
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Mani, Charulatha (2020). Livelihoods as a kaleidoscope of distributed lifeworlds: towards a nuanced understanding of music-making and identity in migrants in South-East Queensland. Music Education Research, 22 (5), 581-595. doi: 10.1080/14613808.2020.1840536
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Bartleet, Brydie-Leigh, Grant, Catherine, Mani, Charulatha and Tomlinson, Vanessa (2020). Global mobility in music higher education: Reflections on how intercultural music-making can enhance students’ musical practices and identities. International Journal of Music Education, 38 (2), 161-176. doi: 10.1177/0255761419890943
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Mani, Charulatha (2020). On breaking with. Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies, 5 (1), 59-80. doi: 10.1386/jivs_00016_1
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Mani, Charulatha (2020). The Eco-mesh approach: a sustainable methodology for socio-culturally interrogative artistic research. RUUKKU Studies in Artistic Research, 14 (1) 3. doi: 10.22501/ruu.679814
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CompoSing awareness: Approaching somaesthetics through voice and yoga
Mani, Charulatha (2019). CompoSing awareness: Approaching somaesthetics through voice and yoga. Journal of Somaesthetics, 5 (2), 67-85.
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Approaching Italian gorgie through Karnatik brigha: an essai on intercultural vocal transmission
Mani, Charulatha (2019). Approaching Italian gorgie through Karnatik brigha: an essai on intercultural vocal transmission. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 10 (3), 410-417. doi: 10.1080/19443927.2019.1677385
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Customised pedagogical tools to aid aural-oral transmission: RagaCurve and gesture
Mani, Charulatha (2018). Customised pedagogical tools to aid aural-oral transmission: RagaCurve and gesture. Finnish Journal of Music Education, 21 (1), 39-54.
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Singing across cultures: an autoethnographic study
Mani, Charulatha (2017). Singing across cultures: an autoethnographic study. International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 48 (2), 245-264.
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Gesture in musical declamation: An intercultural approach
Mani, Charulatha (2017). Gesture in musical declamation: An intercultural approach . Musicologist, 1 (1) 1, 6-31. doi: 10.33906/musicologist.373122
Conference Publication
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“You’ve Got A Friend in Me!”: the fellowship of the ‘Others’
Mani, Charulatha and Rose, Taana (2018). “You’ve Got A Friend in Me!”: the fellowship of the ‘Others’. AUC CreateWorld18, Brisbane, Australia, 28-30 November 2018. Brisbane, Australia: AUC CreateWorld.
Other Outputs
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Mani, Charulatha (2022). Hridaya Kamala. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: UQ School of Music.
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Bris Asia Festival: Love Songs
Mani, Charulatha, Wren, Toby and Shreshta, Dheeraj (2022). Bris Asia Festival: Love Songs. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Bris Asia and Sounds Across Oceans.
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RagAlive: personifications of the divine
Mani, Charulatha (2021). RagAlive: personifications of the divine. Online: Isai Payanam Records.
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Sing to connect: welcoming wellbeing
Mani, Charulatha (2021). Sing to connect: welcoming wellbeing. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre, Griffith University.
