Charles Lwanga
Assistant Professor of Music
Bio
Dr. Charles Lwanga is an ethnomusicologist, composer/theorist, and African percussionist. His research in ethnomusicology examines the role of popular music in transforming Uganda into a participatory arena. His publications (articles, reviews) appear in African Studies Review, Analytical Approaches to World Music, Journal of Musical Arts in Africa, Obesity, Mental Health and Clinical Psychology, Ethnomusicology, as well as the Journal of Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies. Lwanga has read a variety of research papers at annual conferences of the Society for Ethnomusicology, American Anthropological Association, African Studies Association, and at the annual Sterkfontein Composers Meeting in South Africa.
As a composer, Dr. Lwanga’s creative output is grounded through the lenses of interculturalism, creative musicology and African pianism. He is the recipient of the 2015 Robert M. Stevenson prize awarded biannually by the Society of Ethnomusicology to honor the best composition by an ethnomusicologist. He is also a recipient of the African Libraries Student Paper Prize (2019 and 2015), a prize which is awarded by the African and African Diaspora Music section of the Society for Ethnomusicology in recognition of the most distinguished student paper at the society’s annual meeting during a previous year. Other awards include the Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship (2015/16), the Fulbright Junior Fellowship (2009-2012), and the University of Pittsburgh Teaching Fellowship (2012-2015).
Before joining the University of Michigan, Dr. Lwanga was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Brain Aging & Cognitive Health Lab (BACH), Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, where he conducted research on the effects of African music/dance and education on brain and cognition among African American seniors living within the Pittsburgh area. Lwanga holds a Ph. D in Ethnomusicology (2020) and a Ph. D in Composition/Theory (2012) both awarded by the University of Pittsburgh. He also holds an MA in Composition/Theory (2006), a Postgraduate Diploma in Music Education (2006), a BA in Music (2003), and a Diploma in Law (2005).
