Nasim Niknafs

Nasim Niknafs is Associate Professor of Music Education at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, where she also serves as Associate Dean, Research, and Coordinator of Music Education. Her interdisciplinary research, which has been published in numerous journals, edited volumes, and handbooks, concerns philosophies and cultural politics of contemporary music education as they intersect with collective action, anarchism, popular music and improvisation. Born and raised in Iran, Niknafs’ concern for artists, musicians, and cultural workers’ lives has led to research revolving around the constructs of death and deadly living. Having concluded longitudinal research on the music education of rock musicians in Iran, Niknafs is currently conducting a SSHRC-funded project titled, Sanctuary City: Cultural Programs, Music Education, and the Dignified Lives of Refugee Newcomers in Toronto. Niknafs is the editor of the special issue on anti-racism, anti-fascism, and anti-discrimination in and through music education for the journal Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education (ACT), and co-editor of the book, Traumas resisted and (re)engaged: Inquiring into lost and found narratives in music education.Niknafs’ research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Ontario Music Educators Association’s Aga Khan Initiative, and the University of Toronto Connaught Fund, SSHRC Institutional Grants, and Faculty Mobility Grant.

At the university level, Niknafs has taught courses and graduate seminars such as “Moral Economy of Death in Music, Education, and Pedagogy,” “Politics of Sound and Music Making,” “Multimodal Approaches to Music Teaching and Learning,” “Music and Contemporary Politics,” “Cultural Perspectives in Music Education,” “Advanced Topics in Research in Music Education,” and “(Un)Popular Music Education.” Niknafs is on the editorial boards of International Journal of Music Education (IJME), Journal of Music Teacher Education (JMTE), Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education (ACT), and Canadian Music Educator (CME). She is also a steering committee member of the Mayday Group, and the International Society for Sociology of Music Education (ISSME). Niknafs holds degrees from Northwestern University, New York University, Kingston University, London, and University of Art, Tehran.