Gates Cambridge scholars are having a significant impact in every sphere of the arts, from music to literature and video games.
I am interested in things that elude our grasp. There is such magic in that. That’s what performance is about – it’s just beyond what we understand and that’s what makes it exciting. There are parallels with the kind of inspiration we need in the political and social world today.
Naomi Woo
Gates Cambridge Scholars work in every corner of the cultural industries, contributing to new ideas in the world of art, to different ways of viewing the role of music in society and different ways of telling stories.
Visual arts
When it comes to the visual arts, for instance, several Scholars have played an important role in shaping art exhibitions around the world.
They include Julien Domercq [2013; PhD in the History of Art] who is a curator at the Royal Academy of Arts where he is responsible for 18th and 19th century and Old Masters exhibitions. He has previously worked at a range of institutions, including the Dallas Museum of Art and the National Gallery in the UK where he curated the enormously popular Degas exhibition in 2017/2018 and co-curated After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art, the biggest exhibition in the National Gallery’s history.
He says the international and collaborative atmosphere at the University of Cambridge and the emphasis on thinking outside the box have been important ingredients to his approach to curation. “Museums do not always think outside the box,” he says. “Cambridge and Gates Cambridge informed the kind of creative I am. It made me think in a multidisciplinary way, beyond the realm of pure art history.”
Another important figure in the art world is Galina Mardilovich [2008; PhD in the History of Art] who is Curator of the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago. She works closely with senior leadership on the development of a dynamic schedule of exhibitions and to build the Smart’s collection, while also articulating the artistic identity and vision of the Museum. The Museum works with academics to expand artistic canons, rethink received histories, introduce new perspectives and engage diverse communities locally, nationally and internationally. Recent acquisitions have, for instance, expanded the Museum’s intergenerational holdings of works by Black artists, particularly on the South Side of Chicago. The Museum celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024.
Music
Gates Cambridge Scholars have also made an impact in the world of music, from academic research to performance. Naomi Woo [2014; PhD in Music – pictured above] is Music Director of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Artistic Partner with the Orchestre Métropolitain and Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. As well as being an award-winning conductor of a range of music genres including opera, Naomi has performed as a pianist in venues including Carnegie Hall and the Orpheum Theatre.
And she has been pushing the boundaries when it comes to opening up opportunities for conducting to women. In 2019 she was appointed assistant conductor of the prestigious Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra where she worked on musical development and career enhancement for female orchestral conductors.
Music education is also an important part of Naomi’s work: at WSO Naomi was keen to expand the orchestra’s repertoire, for instance, during the Covid-19 pandemic, she produced and hosted a series of family concerts with the WSO called Manitoba Mosaic, whose goal was to explore the four seasons of the province of Manitoba through music and art. The show featured contributions from a young Indigenous artist, an Inuit throatboxer, local singer-songwriters, a tabla player and a musician playing the Chinese flute (dizi), among others.
She says: “I am interested in the connection between musicians and audience and in expanding the range of what people imagine a symphony orchestra is.”
She adds: I am interested in things that elude our grasp. There is such magic in that. That’s what performance is about – it’s just beyond what we understand and that’s what makes it exciting. There are parallels with the kind of inspiration we need in the political and social world today.”
José Izquierdo similarly works to expand the parameters of music and the role it plays in society, through his academic research and engagement in innovative community projects.
One arts project aims to rethink the idea of classical music in Chile and explore and understand it in the context of local communities – how music brings people together and how it can help to reconnect them. José is leading on the project which involves four universities and says it is the first time this kind of funding has been given to the arts in Chile.
Another linked project involved the creation of an organ society which has been recognised by the Government. José [2013] says it is more about community than organ playing itself, something that is much needed after the Covid pandemic. “It is about trying to rethink churches and the ways we can support communities through music,” he says. “The organ materialises the problem of restoring a place where music can be done. It’s a symbol. I’m not thinking about this in a traditional heritage restoration way, but about re-using existing spaces for community.”
José is used to breaking new ground. During his PhD on how Latin American composers united European and local influences in the 19th century, he won an international prize for his work on bringing old rediscovered scores back to life through working with musicians.
Architecture and film
Gates Cambridge Scholars have also been active in fields as divergent as architecture and film.
Nkatha Gichuyia’s PhD on Architecture addressed indoor overheating risk management in buildings located in urban landscapes in the hot tropical climates of developing countries.
Nkatha [2012; PhD in Architecture] now combines academic work as a Lecturer of Architecture at the University of Nairobi and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University College Dublin with architectural practice and policy work with think tanks and government as part of the National Youth Service. She has, for instance, made policy proposals on how the government can address youth unemployment and economic growth in ways that embed climate change management. As a researcher she has worked on projects ranging from buildings and climate change to colonial architecture in a post-colonial world and informal settlements in Kenya.
Meanwhile, Emily Kassie has made a big impact in the world of documentary film. Her most recent film, Sugarcane, has won multiple awards, including the US Documentary Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and is up for an Oscar this weekend. The film, a devastating investigation into systematic abuse at an Indian residential school in Canada, has been streamed on Disney + and Hulu. In addition to co-directing the film, Emily [2016], who did her master’s in International Relations at the University of Cambridge and won a Gates Cambridge Impact Prize earlier this year, served as a producer and cinematographer.
Emily [2016; MPhil in International Relations] said what the film portrays is just the start of the road to reconciliation for Indigenous families. “We are just starting to know the truth. We are at the beginning of understanding what happened,” she told a Gates Cambridge screening in September.
Emily’s background is as a journalist covering geopolitical conflict, humanitarian crises, corruption and the stories of people caught in the crossfire. Her credits include directing on Netflix’s Explained series, films and visual investigations for The New York Times, PBS Frontline and The Guardian, among others. Her first documentary I Married My Family’s Killer, on intermarriage in post-genocide Rwanda, won the Student Academy Award in 2015.
Literature
Several Scholars are forging new paths in the world of literature. They include award-winning Ukrainian poet Iryna Shuvalova [2016, PhD in Slavonic Studies], whose research interests lie at the intersection of culture and politics in Eastern Europe. In her current role as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oslo, she examines the use of popular culture as a medium of manipulation and propaganda in the regions of Ukraine occupied by Russia.
Some Scholars have become best-selling memoirists, for instance, Tara Westover [2009; PhD in History], whose best-selling book Educated charts her experiences growing up in rural Idaho, raised by a radical, survivalist father who was intensely paranoid about government interference in the lives of his family, and Rob Henderson [2018; PhD in Sociology], whose book Troubled is about his journey from foster care to the military to academia and explores questions about social class, status, education and ‘luxury beliefs’ – the beliefs of middle class elites which, he says, often have a damaging impact on those who are less socially advantaged when put into practice.
Other Scholars have written non-fiction works which have covered new ground, such as Wale Adebanwi [2003], a former journalist from Nigeria who is now Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He was previously the first Black Rhodes Professor of Race Relations at St Anthony’s College, Oxford, and the Director of the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. He has written numerous books on Nigerian history, including Yoruba elites and ethnic politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and corporate agency, the first academic book on one of Africa’s most powerful and progressive elites.
Gates Cambridge Scholars have also researched new developments in writing. Acclaimed poet Jaya Savige [2012; PhD in English], who is poetry editor of The Australian, is working on an ambitious project on the history of poetry across all cultures and eras. His most recent book of poems, Change Machine, was named one of the ‘Best Australian Books of the 21st Century’ for its intellectual and stylistic innovation.
Deus Kansiime [2022] is exploring new Ugandan writing in his PhD, having been the first publishing director of a society of up-and-coming poets in Uganda. Acclaimed author Emmanuel Iduma [2024] joins the 2024 cohort and is one of the first scholars on a new PhD in Digital Humanities while Siyabonga Njica [2018] is a respected spoken-word poet who is passionate about exploring Black intellectual history through exiled South African writers and artists. His PhD focused on the South African exiled writer, dramatist, actor and broadcaster Bloke Modisane. Currently the Isaac Newton Trust Fellow in Global African History at the University of Cambridge, Siyabonga is working on several books and exhibitions on Black intellectuals and the role of institutions in supporting them. His background in the arts means he is perfectly placed to encourage dialogue across different ways of communicating culture and history.
Meanwhile, Sara Kazmi [2017], Assistant Professor of English with affiliations in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, is combining her academic research, including her forthcoming book, Anti-Border Poetics: Literary Dissent and Popular Tradition in India/Pakistan, with her work as a performer of Indian classical music. She blends ragas with folk tunes in renditions of protest music from South Asia. She also sits on the editorial committee for Jamhoor, a critical left media organisation that amplifies marginalised and progressive voices from South Asia.
Other literary-minded Scholars are forging new paths on new platforms. Jakub Szamałek went from studying Classics to writing crime novels set in ancient times to becoming a leading figure in the world of video games storytelling. His video game credits include the award-winning Witcher series. Jakub [2009] loves the freedom writing in this genre gives him to experiment.
“Books have been around for a long time so it is harder to write a novel in a new way or in a better way than what has gone before,” he says. “With video games that was not the case. Every time I wrote for one I was learning something new and I was encouraged to find new ways to tell stories. I felt I was blazing a new trail.”
*Picture credit: Tom Porteous
