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Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis ASCA

Dr. M.J. (meLê) Yamomo

Faculty of Humanities
Theatre Studies
Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16-18
Postal address
  • Postbus 93065
    1090 BB Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
  • Profile

    meLê yamomo is Assistant Professor of New Dramaturgies, Media Cultures, Artistic Research, and Decoloniality at the University of Amsterdam, a member of the Amsterdam Young Academy, and author of Sounding Modernities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). He is the project leader and principal investigator of »Re:Sound« (NWO-NWA, 2025-2029), »Decolonizing Southeast Asian Archives« or DeCoSEAS (EU, 2021-2025) and  »Sonic Entanglements« (Netherlands Research Council, 2017-2022). meLê is the fourth winner of the Open Ear Composer Award, and one of the 2020 KNAW Early Career Awardees, by the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a resident artist at Theater Ballhaus Naunynstrasse where his creations Echoing Europe, sonus, and Forces of Overtones are on repertoire. meLê curates the Decolonial Frequences Festival and hosts/produces the Sonic Entanglements podcast. In his works as artist-scholar, meLê engages the topics of sonic migrations, queer aesthetics, and post/de-colonial acoustemologies.  

  • Projects

    Research Projects

    as Project Leader/Principal Investigator

    Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS)
    Funded by the  Joint Programming Initiative Cultural Heritage (JPICH), 2021-2024

    Sonic Entanglements: Listening to Modernities in Southeast Asian Sound Recordings, 1890-1950
    NWO Veni Innovation Research Project
    Funded by the Dutch Research Organization (NWO), 2017-2021

    Globalization in Cylinders: Recording Asian Sounds on the European Stage, 1890-1910
    International Research Center »Interweaving Performance Cultures« (2016-2017)
    Freie Universität Berlin

    Globalization in Cylinders: Recording Asian Sounds on the European Stage, 1890-1910
    Postdoctoral Research Project
    Global Theatre Histories Project
    Ludwig Maximilians Universität-München

     

    Fellowships

    Artist in Residency
    Akademie der Künste-Studio for Electroacoustic Music (Berlin, Germany)

    Research Fellow
    International Research Center »Interweaving Performance Cultures« (2018-2020)

    Artist in Residence
    Theater Ballhaus Naunynstrasse (2017-present)

    Research Fellow 
    The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (2018-2020)

     

    Workshop and Conference Organization

    Sonic Returns: Repatriating Sounds in Exile
    Principal convenor and organizer
    25 October 2022 (SOAS-London), 28 October (CNRS-CASE Paris), 1 November (Department of Music Studies, University of Amsterdam), 4 November (Department of Musicology and Media Studies, Humboldt University-Berlin)

    Untangling Philippine Sound, Archive, And Knowledge
    Principal convenor and organizer
    Co-organized with the University of the Philippines Center for Ethnomusicology
    5-7 May 2022, University of the Philippines

    Sonic Entanglements: Sound, Archive, and Acoustic Historiographies in the Asia Pacific
    (A four-city, nine-day workshop series and archival tour)
    Principal convenor and organizer
    Co-organizers: Barbara Titus (University of Amsterdam), Harry van Biessum (The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision), Gerda Lechleitner (Vienna Phonogram Archive)

    EuroSEAS 2019 (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
    Panel Convenor “Sonic Entanglements: Sound, Archive, and Acoustic Historiographies in the Asia Pacific”
    Co-convened with Barbara Titus
    September 10–13, 2019, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

    Acoustic Histories/Historiographies in the Asia Pacific
    Workshop funded by the Transregional Studies Forum-Berlin and Max Weber Foundation
    11-12 January 2018,  Transregional Studies Forum - Berlin

    The Boat is Sinking? Open Encounter Addressing the Urgency of Artistic Cross-Cultural Dialogues
    co-organized with Dancing on the Edge in cooperation with Dutch Culture and the Amsterdam School of Globalisation Studies
    5 November 2015, 15:00-18:00, University Theater, Amsterdam

    Transformation: Lecture and Open Masterclass by Pierre Audi
    Stage Director, "Sorella, que dici?.... Prenderò quel brunettino", from Mozart’s Così fan tutte (1790)
    University Theatre, Amsterdam, 6 October 2015, 10:00

    Troubled Love (Opera Masterclass with Pierre Audi)
    Co-organizer together with Kasper van Kooten and Prof. Kati Röttger Organized under through the Theatre Studies Amsterdam, and the Pierre Audi Honorary Fellowship Programme
    University Theater, Amsterdam, 13 May 2015

    Localizing the International: Visions of Curatorship in Theatre and Performance: Master class with Frie Leysen
    Organizer and convener
    Organized on the occassion of Frie Leysen’s winning the Erasmus Prize and the Jubileaum of the Theatre Studies, University of Amsterdam; Funded through the Praemium Erasmianum,
    University Theater, Amsterdam, 24 October 2014

    Globalizing Opera Workshop
    Organizer and co-convener together with Prof. dr. Kati Röttger
    International Workshop funded through the Amsterdam School of Globalization Studies; and organized through the Netherlands Institute of Cultural Analysis
    University Theater Amsterdam, 19 June 2014

    Cross-Culturality in/as Music Theatre (Practice-as-Research Workshop)
    Workshop; Organized through Theatre Studies Amsterdam and the Netherlands Institute of Cultural Analysis
    University Theater, Amsterdam, 14-15 May 2014

    Media

    Global Theatre Histories ScienceCast

    Directed and Produced the »Global Theatre Histories« ScienceCast Video for Ludwig Maxmilians Universität Munich, ©2014.
    Download the video from iTunes

     

  • PhD Supervision

    Ongoing

     

    Juan Pablo Charry  [2026-2029] 
    Unmasking loudness: Dwelling sonic hegemony at Colombian electronic music dance sound systems 
    Co-supervisor: Sanjukta Sunderason

    Mehrnoush Shahbakhti [2025-2029] 
    The Reception History of Jazz Music in Iranian Culture (from the Cold War to the Present)
    Co-supervisor: Walter van de Leur

    Rani Fitriana [2025-2029]
    Decolonizing Sonic Heritage
    Co-supervisor: Sri Margana, Barbara Titus

    Emma Lo (2023-2027)
    Playing (with) the Archive: Asian diasporic perspectives in musical instrument digitization
    Co-supervisor: Doris Kolesch (Freie Universität Berlin)

    Luc Marraffa [2022-2026]
    Interrupting Broadcasts|Broadcasting Interruptions: a study of subjectivation in colonial soundscapes
    Co-supervisor: Carolyn Birdsall

  • Teaching

    Current Teaching

    MA
    Research Seminar: Theatre, Performance and Politics
    Sound Culture as a Method for Decolonial Research
    Artistic Research Core Module 2: Research Matters: Knowledge Production Within and Beyond the Academy
    Artistic Research Thesis Project/Exhibition
     

     

    BA
    Studiereis Theaterwetenschap (Theatre Studies)
    Philosophy of Humanities (Media and Culture)
    Research Seminar and BA Thesis (Media and Culture)
    Doing Media Studies 1 (Media and Culture)

    Past Teaching

    MA
    Theatre and Globalization
    Music Theatre as Laboratory (jointly offered by the Theatre Studies and the Musicology Departments)

    BA
    Presence and Aesthetic Experience in Performance, Film and the Arts
    I hear you. Theatre, Film, Media and Sonic Art in Sound Culture
    Composing Theatre, Staging Music. Practices and Concepts in Music Theatre

  • Publications

    2026

    • Titus, B., Yamomo, M. J., Aryandari, C., Clark, E. H., Dachi, D. K., Li, D. E., Fitria Ningsih, W., & Margana, S. (2026). Restituting and Re-Membering the Jaap Kunst Collection through Collective Community Curation. TMG – Journal for Media History.
    • Yamomo, M. J., Gijsman, K., Murphy-Weise, E., Naval, R., riley Law, P., Wolfswinke, D., & Revell, I. (2026). Let Us Cook at the Concertgebouw: recipes for curating disruptive sonic atmospheres (a collective exchange). TURBA: The Journal for Global Practices in Live Arts Curation, 5(1).

    2024

    • Curtin, A., Purkayastha , P., & Yamomo, M. (2024). Methodologies Dialogue: Archives and Embodiments. In T. C. Davis, & P. Rae (Eds.), The Cambridge Guide to Mixed Methods Research for Theatre and Performance Studies (pp. 217-235). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009294904.015 [details]
    • Yamomo, M. (2024). How and why? The post/decolonial as method in contemporary European theatre. In R. Remshardt, & A. Mancewicz (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Contemporary European Theatre and Performance (pp. 416-424). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003082538-67 [details]
    • Yamomo, M. (2024). La Sonoridad del Mundo en Manila del siglo XIX: A Synesthetic Listening to Spanish Writings in 19th-Century Manila. In A. Gasquet, & R. Ortuño Casanova (Eds.), Transnational Philippines : Cultural Encounters in Philippine Literature in Spanish (pp. 173-189). University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11959397 [details]
    • Yamomo, M., & Beyer, T. (2024). "Framing Europe": meLê yamomo interviewed by Theresa Beyer. In C. Grüny, & B. Farnsworth (Eds.), New Music and Institutional Critique (pp. 195-205). (Ästhetiken X.0 – Zeitgenössische Konturen ästhetischen Denkens). J.B. Metzler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-67131-3 [details]
    • Yamomo, M., & Titus, B. (2024). Rehearsing Decolonial Curatorship of Southeast Asian Sound Archives in Europe. In E. van Bijnen, P. Brandon, K. Fatah-Black, I. Limon, W. Modest, & M. Schavemaker (Eds.), The Future of the Dutch Colonial Past : Curating Heritage, Art and Activism (pp. 110-123). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048556731-009, https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11895526.11 [details]

    2023

    • Yamomo, M. (2023). Disentangling Colonial Archives: The Combustible Affair of Ensuring/Insuring Theater Safety in Colonial Singapore. In E. Fischer-Lichte, M. Sugiera, T. Jost, H. Hartung, & O. Soltani (Eds.), Entangled Performance Histories : New Approaches to Theater Historiography (pp. 127-144). (Routledge Advances in Theatre and Performance). Routledge. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003353461-9 [details]

    2022

    2021

    • Yamomo, M. (2021). Acoustic Epistemologies and Early Sound Recordings in the Nusantara Region: Phonography, Archive, and the Birth of Ethnomusicology. In A. Johan , & M. A. Santaella (Eds.), Made in Nusantara: Studies in Popular Music (pp. 75-82). (Routledge Global Popular Music Series ). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367855529-9 [details]
    • Yamomo, M. (2021). [Review of: N. Porath (2019) Hearing Southeast Asia: Sounds of Hierarchy and Power in Context]. Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia, 177(2-3), 439-441. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134379-17702013 [details]
    • Yamomo, M., & Titus, B. (2021). The Persistent Refrain of the Colonial Archival Logic/Colonial Entanglements and Sonic Transgressions: Sounding Out the Jaap Kunst Collection. The World of Music, 10(1), 39-70. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27032505 [details]

    2019

    2018

    • Yamomo, M. (2018). Theatre and Music in Manila and the Asia Pacific, 1869-1946: Sounding Modernities. (Transnational Theatre Histories). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69176-3 [details]
    • Yamomo, M. (2018). Echoing Musical Modernities: Filipino migrant musicians from the 19th century to the Present. In A. Q. Tan (Ed.), Saysay Himig: A sourcebook on Philippine music history 1880-1941 (pp. 265-270). (Music and culture book series). The University of the Philippines Press. [details]
    • Yamomo, M. (2018). Making Sense of an Unfinished Business. In C. Rajendran, K. Takiguchi, & C. Nge (Eds.), Excavations, Interrogations, Krishen Jit & Contemporary Malaysian Theatre (pp. 158-165). Five Arts Centre. [details]
    • Yamomo, M. (2018). Medializing Race: Uncle Tom’s Cabin in Colonial Southeast Asia. In T. C. Davis, & S. Mihaylova (Eds.), Uncle Tom's Cabins: The Transnational History of America's Most Mutable Book (pp. 258-281). The University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.8057139 [details]

    2017

    • Yamomo, M. (2017). Global Currents, Musical Streams: European Opera in Colonial Southeast Asia. Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, 44(1), 54-74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748372717741440 [details]
    • Yamomo, M., & Villaruz, B. E. (2017). Manila and the World Dance Space: Nationalism and Globalization in Cold War Philippines and South East Asia. In C. B. Balme, & B. Szymanski-Düll (Eds.), Theatre, Globalization and the Cold War (pp. 307-323). (Transnational Theatre Histories). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48084-8_18 [details]

    2015

    2010

    2021

    • Titus, B., Yamomo, M. J., & Juan, C. (2021). Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives. Web publication or website https://www.decoseas.org/

    2026

    • Yamomo, M. J. (2026). meLê yamomo. In F. Notari , & C. Tsw (Eds.), Clippings 2: Sum, Parts (pp. 31-33). Het Nieuwe Instituut.
    • Yamomo, M. J., & Sağlam, Y. (2026). Rewiring the Sonus: Letters to Rewire Listeners. In K. Truijen (Ed.), Further Listening: On Adventurous Music and Sound. (pp. 17-26). Page Not Found/Rewire.
    • Yamomo, M. J., Yamomo, J., Shafaswara, A. C., & Sri Margana (2026). Sonic Returns: A Polyvocal Reflection. In H. Khalidi, & A. Sarroff (Eds.), Eye(s) Open: New Perspectives on Film Heritage from Colonial Times (pp. 36-43). nai010 uitgevers.

    2014

    Prize / grant

    Membership / relevant position

    • Yamomo, m. (2023-2024). Amsterdam Young Academy. https://amsterdamyoungacademy.nl/member/mele-yamomo/
    • Titus, B. & Yamomo, m. (2021-2022). Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS) is a three-year research and community engagement project funded by the Joint Programming (…), Research Project: Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives.

    Media appearance

    Journal editor

    • yamomo, m. (member of editorial board) (2023-). Amsterdam Museum Journal (Journal).
    • yamomo, m. (member of editorial board) (2023-2028). Palgrave Transnational Theatre Histories (Publisher).
    • yamomo, m. (member of editorial board) (2021-2022). Journal of the SEAMEO Regional Centre for Archaelogy and FIne Arts (SPAFA) (Journal).

    Talk / presentation

    • Titus, B. (invited speaker), Yamomo, m. (invited speaker), Daniel, E. (invited speaker), digim'Rina, l. (invited speaker) & Niles, D. (invited speaker) (13-11-2025). Roundtable: Re-circulating (early) sound recordings, Roundtable: Re-circulating (early) sound recordings, Vienna. https://www.entangled-recordings.pha.oeaw.ac.at/
    • Peeren, E. (speaker), Isenia, J. (speaker), Stelder, M. (speaker), Yamomo, m. (speaker) & Titus, B. (speaker) (27-11-2021). Activism, Academic Research and Decoloniality, The Future of the Dutch Colonial Past, Amsterdam.
    • Yamomo, m. (speaker) (12-12-2020). When did the Manila musicians become Filipinos? And when did Post-migration become Post, Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis Musicological Expo 2020.
    • Yamomo, m. (speaker) (25-9-2020). 1st Sounds Now Symposium: Curating Diversity in Europe - Decolonizing Contemporary Music, Akademie der Künste Berlin. https://www.adk.de/de/programm/index.htm?we_objectID=61356
    • Yamomo, m. (speaker) (17-7-2020). Keynote Lecture: Opera and the Exotic Within Us, Mannheimer Sommer Europäisches Festival für Musik und Theater von Mozart bis heute 2020, Mannheim. https://www.nationaltheater-mannheim.de/de/stueck_details.php?SID=3778

    Others

    • Titus, B. (participant), Yamomo, m. (participant), Campfens, E. (participant), Beurden, J. (participant), Li, D. (chair), Clark, E. (organiser) & Kuitenbrouwer, V. (organiser) (6-5-2025). Restitution of Sonic Heritage, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...). https://restitutionmatters.org/event/restitution-of-sonic-heritage/
    • Titus, B. (participant), Yamomo, m. (participant), Fitria Ningsih, W. (participant) & Margana, S. (participant) (25-9-2024). Winner Week of Indonesia-Netherlands Education and Research, Leiden. Restituting, Reconnecting, Reimagining Sound Heritage (Re:Sound) (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Titus, B. (participant), Yamomo, m. (organiser), Nijem, L. (organiser) & Aryandari, C. (organiser) (1-7-2024 - 6-7-2024). Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives, Denpasar (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Titus, B. (organiser), Yamomo, m. (organiser), Nijem, L. (organiser), Kuitenbrouwer, V. (participant), Aryandari, C. (participant) & Wiradz, V. (participant) (8-8-2022 - 12-8-2022). Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives, Manila (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Titus, B. (participant) & Yamomo, m. (organiser) (5-8-2022 - 6-8-2022). Untangling Philippine Sound, Archive, and Knowledge, Manila (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Titus, B. (participant), Yamomo, m. (participant) & Nijem, L. (participant) (30-6-2022). Archival Interactions, Amsterdam (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Titus, B. (organiser), Yamomo, m. (organiser), Nijem, L. (participant), Juan, C. (participant) & Simonnot, J. (participant) (7-10-2021 - 10-10-2021). First Consortium Meeting Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives, Paris (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Yamomo, m. (other) (11-2020). Artist-in-Residence Fellowship (other).
    • Yamomo, m. (chair), Titus, B. (member of programme committee), Kuitenbrouwer, V. (participant), Margana, S. (participant), Aryandari, C. (participant), Buenconsejo, J. (participant) & de Jesus, R. (participant) (13-9-2019). Euroseas conference, Berlin, Berlin. Double Panel entitled "Sonic Entanglements: Sound, Archive, and Acoustic Historiographies in Southeast Asia" (organising a conference, workshop, ...). https://euroseas2019.org/program/panels/sonic-entanglements-sound-archive-and-acoustic-historiographies-in-southeast-asia
    • Yamomo, m. (organiser), Titus, B. (participant), Margana, S. (participant), Aryandari, C. (participant), Buenconsejo, J. (participant), de Jesus, R. (participant) & Kuitenbrouwer, V. (participant) (9-9-2019 - 16-9-2019). Sonic Entanglements Archival Visits. Between 9-16 September, The Sonic Entanglements Research Project gathers together scholars of history, anthropology, ethnomusicology, performance (…) (organising a conference, workshop, ...). https://sonic-entanglements.com/news/
    • Yamomo, m. (organiser), Titus, B. (organiser), de Kloet, J. (participant), Margana, S. (participant), Aryandari, C. (participant), Barendregt, B. (participant), Buenconsejo, J. (participant), Birdsall, C. (participant), Schmidt, L. (participant), Chow, Y. (participant), Ajotikar, R. (participant), Spiller, H. (participant), de Jesus, R. (participant) & Kuitenbrouwer, V. (participant) (9-9-2019). Sonic Entanglements, Hilversum. This workshop gathers together scholars of history, anthropology, ethnomusicology, performance studies, media studies, and psychology working on/in (…) (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Titus, B. (participant), Yamomo, M. J. (participant), Aryandari, C. (participant) & Seibt, F. O. (organiser) (19-10-2018). International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-DACH) Conference, Bern. Participation in the Panel Asia as Method in Popular Music Studies (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Yamomo, m. (organiser) (2018). Acoustic Histories/Historiographies in the Asia Pacific, Berlin. The Workshop aims to bring together scholars, historians, artists, and archivists working on sound histories/iographies in the Asia Pacific for an (…) (organising a conference, workshop, ...). https://trafo.hypotheses.org/8710
    • yamomo, m. (organiser) (2015). The Boat is Sinking? Open Encounter Addressing the Urgency of Artistic Cross-Cultural Dialogues, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Yamomo, m. (organiser) (2014). Localizing the International: Visions of Curatorship in Theatre and Performance,Master class with Frie Leysen, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...).

    2016

    • Yamomo, M. J. (2016). Sounding Modernities: Theatre and Music in Manila and the Asia Pacific, 1869-1946.
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