Shannon Garland visits INET-md with a project on Festa do Avante!

Shannon Garland, Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, United States of America, is visitng INET-md at NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, in Lisbon, with a research project on Festa do Avante!, in the year of its 50th anniversary.

The researcher, who has previously collaborated with INET-md in the editing of Independence in 21st Century Popular Music: Case from Beyond Anglo-America (Bloomsury, 2025), has been exploring issues of labor, commodification, media and politics in the field of music, with case studies in Brazil and Chile.

At INET-md until December 2026, with a Fulbright fellowship, Shannon will now conduct the project “Musical Feeling and Volunteer Labor at the ‘Festa do Avante!’“, focusing on the volunteer labor of militants and sympathizers in the production of the event that in this year’s lineup features renowned names in world music such as Ney Matogrosso and Bombino.

Using an ethnographic approach, Shannon will participate in the process of setting up the Festa do Avante!, in Seixal, and will conduct a series of interviews with volunteers and participants at the event, which she will supplement with a literature review of academic work in Portugal on music, politics, and the country’s redemocratization.

During her stay, Shannon Garland will be hosted by INET-md’s research group in Ethnomusicology and Popular Music Studies and will collaborate with the thematic line in Power, Politics and Activism.

Cover image: Photograph of Festa do Avante! in 2024®Shannon Garland.