Abigail Gardner Interview
Abigail Gardner is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Gloucestershire. Among other pursuits, she’s the associate editor of the Journal of The International Association of the Study of Popular Music. Her key interests are music, gender, and ageing.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
I have had what might be termed a wayward route into academia. I started my undergraduate degree in Japanese at Cambridge University and switched to London’s SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), after which I worked for the magazine Marxism Today, did some translating and lived in Japan. Coming back to the UK I played keyboards in bands and then did my Masters at the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in the late 90s and continued there onto a PhD about PJ Harvey. I turned this into a book in 2015, PJ Harvey and Music Video Performance (Routledge).
Did you have any mentors along the way? What did they teach you?