Voicing our shared histories

His four-year project Mainstream Song, Class, and Culture, 1520–2020 will examine song as a means of understanding and voicing our shared histories and practices, across boundaries of age, class, geography, and time.

Dr Jensen, a NUAcT Fellow in Newcastle University’s music department, is one of only 77 early-career researchers across the country to be awarded a prestigious Future Leaders Fellowship by UKRI to lead research, collaborate with innovators, and develop their careers as the research and innovation leaders of the future.

While ordinary songs such sea shanties, psalms, or even football chants are often celebrated, Dr Jensen says his research will help to stop them being misunderstood and misrepresented.

 “Simple songs play a huge part in our culture,” he explains. “I’ve been studying songs since I was 21 and writing them since I was 15 – but like most of us, I’ve been singing and hearing them since I was a baby,” says Dr Jensen. “Song is there throughout everyone’s life in some shape or form and it’s important we recognise this role it plays personally and communally and find better ways to understand it.”

Bold ideas

Frances Burstow, Director of Talent and Skills at UKRI, said:

"UKRI’s Future Leaders Fellowships provide researchers and innovators with long-term support and training to embark on large and complex research programmes, to address key national and global challenges.

"The programme supports the research and innovation leaders of the future to transcend disciplinary and sector boundaries, bridging the gap between academia and business.

The fellows announced today demonstrate how UKRI supports excellence across the entire breadth of its remit, supporting early-career researchers to lessen the distance from discovery to real world impact."

UKRI Chief Executive, Professor Sir Ian Chapman, said:

“UKRI’s Future Leaders Fellowships offer long-term support to outstanding researchers, helping them turn bold ideas into innovations that improve lives and livelihoods in the UK and beyond.

"These fellowships continue to drive excellence and accelerate the journey from discovery to public benefit. I wish them every success.”