The Music, Audio, Radio, and Sound (MAR) Working Group will be holding online elections for one co-Chair position, for the term 2026–2030.
The elections will be held online from 13 to 27 May using the SurveyMonkey platform.
Individual members and representatives of institutional members in good standing who are also registered members of the Music, Audio, Radio, and Sound Working Group by 8 May are eligible to vote.
To verify if you are a member of the MAR Working Group, log in to your IAMCR account and select “My Sections and Working Groups” from the menu.
View the candidate and read his statements below.
More information and timeline are available at https://iamcr.org/s-wg/elections2026
Read more about the Music, Audio, Radio, and Sound (MAR) Working Group
Candidate
Statement
Gustavo Ferreira
University of Toronto, Canada
I am excited to present my candidacy for Co-Chair of the Music, Audio, Radio, and Sound (MARS) Working Group for the 2026–2030 term. I am an Assistant Professor, teaching stream, in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto in Canada, where I teach Science and Technology Studies, Information and Music, Audio Cultures, and Culture & Technology, and coordinate the Master of Information concentration in Culture & Technology. As a Brazilian scholar whose teaching and research have consistently focused on audio media, music, and sound cultures, I will be honoured to help consolidate the Working Group.
My relationship with MARS has developed across several conference cycles. I organized and chaired a virtual panel within the Working Group at IAMCR 2022 in Beijing, and I have presented my research in MARS sessions at the 2024 conference in Aotearoa, New Zealand and the 2025 conference in Singapore. Most recently, in January 2026, I co-organized the IAMCR Webinar "Music Streaming around the world" launching Prof. David Hesmondhalgh's book discussing how audio platforms are reshaping music production, distribution, and consumption in a variety of locations. I see MARS as a crucial venue for developing an international community of research and practice in Sound, Audio and Music that addresses these topics from diverse standpoints, beyond Western and Global North hegemony. Personally, it has been a key intellectual home for cross-methodological, regional, and disciplinary exchange within sound and audio media studies.
My research spans radio studies, music and platform economies, sound studies, and information and technology studies. I have written radio programming, music playlists, music recommender systems, streaming and cultural citizenship, urban soundscapes, and the historical and contemporary role of audio media as infrastructures of cultural mediation. Methodologically, my work combines cultural analysis, political economy, media history, and critical studies of data and algorithms. In this way, my scholarship is in direct dialogue with all core areas of interest of the MARS Working Group: sound industries; media professionals and infrastructures; audiences and listening practices; and the changing relations between audio, technology, and power.
As an IAMCR officer, I hope to actively promote the collective and practical labour that sustains the Working Group. I envision promoting more Webinars that incentivize member participation and publicize IAMCR and the MARS Working Group to non-members. I am particularly interested in strengthening MARS’s role as an inclusive international forum that fosters dialogue across regions and research traditions about audio and sound, particularly on current challenges in podcasting as scholarly practice, urban soundscapes and the role of sound and AI Music and Voice Generation, which raises concerns over educational and scientific production.
My main goal as Co-chair is to work collaboratively with the existing leadership to find ways to keep an active community of participants in both the conference and yearly activities. I would be honoured to contribute to the stewardship of the MARS Working Group during its next mandate. Thank you for your vote!
Best regards,
Gustavo