Ailsa Lipscombe

Ailsa Lipscombe, PhD, is a Research Fellow in the Department of Music at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, with an upcoming appointment at the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati starting August 2024. Her research bridges ethnomusicology, sound studies, and critical disability studies, focusing on intersectional experiences of medicalization and embodied listening. She holds a PhD in Music from the University of Chicago (2022), an MA in Music from the University of Chicago (2017), and an MMus from Victoria University of Wellington (2015).

• Education:
• PhD in Music, University of Chicago, 2022
• MA in Music, University of Chicago, 2017
• MMus, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015

Her work explores ethical transformations of Indigenous archiving in Aotearoa New Zealand, emphasizing community engagement and an ethics of care. She received the 2021 Charles Seeger Prize for her groundbreaking paper on embodied listening in medical spaces. Her monograph, Listening Beyond Crisis: Disability and the Medicalization of Everyday Life, is under contract with the University of Michigan Press.

Her research integrates decolonial methodologies and digital ethnography, reflecting her intersectional identity as a queer, disabled scholar with Māori heritage (Te Whakatōhea).