Free Floater Research Group: Music, Conflict and the State

Cornelia Nuxoll M.A., Research Assistant

Curriculum Vitae
Born 1979 in Hanover, Germany. Cornelia Nuxoll studied Social Anthropology and Religious Studies at the Philipps-University Marburg and the Freie Universität Berlin, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa and on ethnomusicology. She pursued studies on the traditional and popular music of the West African Mande at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London under Dr. Lucy Durán. For her master’s thesis she conducted fieldwork in Burkina Faso, working on the role and function of percussion music as well as on the status and self-perception of drummers playing the Jembe drum. After graduating her interests turned to the question of the politics of development and she completed a postgraduate course on sustainable development in the profession of long-term developmental work.
As a percussionist, Cornelia Nuxoll applies her knowledge of African drums in educational and youth work and as an occasional consultant for music and drum teachers. Since November 2008 she has been a research assistant at the Department of Musicology of the University of Göttingen being part of the research group “Music, Conflict and the State”.


Main research interests


  • Social Anthropology and Ethnomusicology
  • Music of sub-Saharan Africa
  • Music of the Mande (West Africa)
  • Theatre of Development
  • Shamanism, Possession and African Religions
  • Aesthetics of Religion and Sacred Spaces



Publications