Fiona Magowan

Professor Fiona Magowan is a leading scholar in anthropology, ethnomusicology, and conflict transformation, affiliated with Queen's University Belfast. She holds a D.Phil from the University of Oxford and has held previous academic positions at Manchester University and Adelaide University. Currently, she serves as a Fellow and Research Lead at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security, and Justice.

Her research focuses on intersections of music, sound, and movement in conflict transformation, with fieldwork in Australia, Brazil, Northern Ireland, and Mozambique. Key projects include leading the PaCCS-funded 'Sounding Conflict: From Resistance to Reconciliation' (2017–2022), exploring sound’s role in peacebuilding. She has co-authored/edited influential books such as Sounding Conflict (2023) and Christianity, Conflict, and Renewal (2016).

Professor Magowan has received multiple accolades, including Queen’s Postgraduate Supervisory Excellence Awards (2015, 2017) and the Queen’s Teaching Award (2007). She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. Her teaching spans undergraduate and postgraduate courses on expressive cultures, performance, and gender in anthropology.

Active in interdisciplinary collaboration, she has organized global conferences on music, conflict, and peacebuilding. Her work advances the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals related to peace, justice, and inclusive societies.