+44 (0)161 295 6132
n.spelman@salford.ac.uk

 

Nicola Spelman is a Senior Lecturer in Popular Music and joint programme leader for the BA (Hons) Popular Music & Recording and BA (Hons) Popular Musicology. She was appointed as a lecturer within Salford’s Music Division in 1995 and currently teaches popular music composition and popular musicology.

Nicola's research interests surround issues of representation within popular music and she has a growing reputation in the field of anti-psychiatry and popular music. She was awarded a PhD in 2009 for her thesis All the Madmen: Popular Music, Anti-Psychiatry and the Myths of Madness, and her book Popular Music & the Myths of Madness is soon to be published by Ashgate as part of their Popular & Folk Music series. Nicola has delivered a number of guest lectures and conference papers on the subject of music and madness; her most recent,‘“Just my Librium and me and my EST makes three”: Strategies of Psychiatric Resistance in Popular Songs and Literary Works’, was for the University of Northumbria’s LitPop: Writing and Popular Music conference in June 2011.

Nicola’s research interests also include the teaching and assessment of popular music composition. In recognition of this she was asked to disseminate her ideas at the IASPM Conference Popular Music Studies: Where Now? for a session entitled ‘Teaching Popular Music: Methods and Approaches’. Since 1995 she has played a key role in the development of popular music education at Salford, designing and developing modules in a range of subject areas and co-writing courses such as the BA (Hons) Popular Musicology. Having fulfilled the role of External Advisor for other HE Institutions in the UK, Nicola is currently External Examiner for the BA (Hons) Popular Music Studies at Liverpool John Moores University.

 

Forthcoming authored book: Popular Music & the Myths of Madness (Aldershot: Ashgate).