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Dr Jenny Mbaye

Programme Director, MA Culture, Policy and Management

School of Arts and Social Sciences Department of Sociology

Contact details

Address

Dr Jenny Mbaye D601, Rhind Building
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

About

Overview

Dr Jenny Mbaye joined City, University of London as a Lecturer in 2015 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2020. She does research in cultural policy and governance, creative economy and labour in relation urban creativity, development and transformation in African contexts. Her work focuses on urban popular cultures, entrepreneurship and the music economy in Francophone West Africa. She joined the Centre for Culture and the Creative Industries (CCCI) in 2015 and currently is the Programme Director of its MA in Culture, Policy and Management. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the African Centre for Cities (ACC), University of Cape Town (UCT) and the Recipient of the prestigious Ray Pahl Fellowship in Urban Studies (2013).

Jenny worked in cultural and media organizations in Senegal and Burkina Faso, and as an academic researcher in Canada, the U.K. and South Africa. She is a policy consultant (UNESCO/HABITAT Culture Urban Future; UNDP/UNESCO Creative Economy Report 2013; Praia Declaration; UNESCO Creative Cities Network; Open Society Initiative for West Africa, British Council), a Jury Member for the African Art Lines artistic mobility fund, and a member of the Arterial Network Cultural Policy Task Group for which she acted as scientific advisor on its African Creative Cities Network pilot programme (2016-18).

She holds a PhD in Human Geography (urban cultural economy) from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), 2011; a DESS (Graduate Diploma) in Management of Cultural Organisations from HEC-Montreal, 2006; an MA in International Studies (ethnomusicology) from the University of Montreal, 2005; and a BA in Sociology & Anthropology from Concordia University, 2003.

Qualifications

  1. PhD in Human Geography (urban cultural economy), London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom, Oct 2006 – Dec 2011
  2. DESS (Graduate Diploma) in Management of Cultural Organisations, HEC Montréal, Canada, Sep 2005 – Jul 2006
  3. MSc in International Studies (ethnomusicology), University of Montreal, Canada, Sep 2003 – Dec 2004
  4. BA in Arts and Sciences (sociology), Concordia University, Canada, Sep 2001 – Jun 2003

Employment

  1. Ray Pahl Postdoctoral Fellowship in Urban Studies, University of Cape Town, Jan – Dec 2013
  2. Policy consultant, UNESCO, Sep 2012 – present
  3. Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Cape Town, Feb 2012 – Dec 2014
  4. Lecturer, University of Cape Town, Feb 2012 – Aug 2014
  5. Collaborative consultant, Accents Multiples, Bureau of Cultural Engineering and Mediation, Nov 2008 – Jan 2010
  6. Cultural coordinator/manager, Umane Culture, Sep – Nov 2008
  7. Graduate Teaching Assistant, London School of Economics and Political Science, Jan 2007 – Oct 2010
  8. Coordinator/Administrator, London School of Economics and Political Science, Oct 2006 – Jun 2010
  9. Radio journalist/reporter, Radio Futurs Medias, May – Oct 2005
  10. Coordinator, International Music Council, Sep 2004 – May 2005

Memberships of professional organisations

  1. Arterial Network Cultural Policy Task Group, Jun 2014 – present
  2. UNESCO Pool of Experts for Francophone Africa (Convention 2005 on the Protection and the Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions), Nov 2012 – present

Languages

French (can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review), Portuguese (can read and understand spoken) and Spanish; Castilian (can read, speak and understand spoken).

Teaching

Undergraduate and postgraduate teaching

- MA Cultural Policy
- BA Cultural Policy
- MA Popular Music and Society

Research

Cultural policy; urban culture and creativity; local and sustainable development; popular music; cultural economy; (West) Africa; Global South

Publications

Featured publications

  1. Mbaye, J. and Dinardi, C. (2019). Ins and outs of the cultural polis: Informality, culture and governance in the global South. Urban Studies, 56(3), pp. 578–593. doi:10.1177/0042098017744168.
  2. Mbaye, J. and McShane, I. (2018). UNESCO Creative Cities Network Membership Monitoring Report. UNESCO.
  3. Mbaye, J. (2016). A Regional Report on Urban Conservation and Regeneration: Sub-Saharan Africa. UNESCO.

Publications by category

Chapters (8)

  1. Mbaye, J. and Iossifidis, M. (2020). Curating Dakar as an art world city. In Kuoni, C., Baltà Portolès, J., Khan, N. and Serubiri, M. (Eds.), Forces of Art: Perspectives from a changing world (pp. 215–236). Valiz.
  2. Mbaye, J. (2016). Rogue Flânerie: Cultural Takhawalu in Urban Extremes: Cape Town & Dakar. In Umunna, M. and Disu, O. (Eds.), Open City Lagos (pp. 50–57). Nigeria & Switzerland: Heinrich Böll Foundation (Nigeria), Nsibidi Institute (Nigeria) & Fabulous Urban (Switzerland).
  3. Mbaye, J. and Deme, A. (2015). Formidable comme Karim Wade. In Beyer, T., Burkhalter, T. and Liechti, H. (Eds.), Seismographic Sounds – Visions of a New World Bern: Norient Books. ISBN 978-3-9524496-0-8.
  4. Mbaye, (2015). Géographies de l'économie de la musique hip hop au Sénégal. In Roy-Valex, M. and Bellavance, G. (Eds.), Arts et territoires à l'ère du développement durable : vers une nouvelle économie culturelle? (pp. 231–258). Laval: Presses de l'Université Laval. ISBN 978-2-7637-2619-9.
  5. Mbaye, J.F. (2013). On the Rogue Practices of West African Musical Entrepreneurs. Rogue Urbanism: Emergent African Cities (pp. 253–264). Cape Town: African Centre for Cities & Jacana Media.
  6. Mbaye, J.F. (2011). Hip Hop Political Production in West Africa: AURA and its Extraordinary Stories of Poto-Poto Children. Native Tongues: An African Hip Hop Reader Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.
  7. Mbaye, J.F. (2009). Hip Hop Space of Politics in France. Culture and the City (pp. 395–416). Berlin: Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag.
  8. The Routledge Handbook on Cities of the Global South. In Routledge.

Internet publication

  1. Mbaye, J. (2017). Mali's cultural capital shows how citizen-centred development can trump gentrification.

Journal articles (6)

  1. Mbaye, J. and Yeh, D. (2020). #BLM and the city. City, Culture and Society, 23, pp. 100373–100373. doi:10.1016/j.ccs.2021.100373.
  2. Mbaye, J. and PRATT, A.C. (2020). Cities, Creativities and Urban Creative Economies: Re‐descriptions and Make+Shifts from Sub‐Saharan Africa. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 44(5), pp. 781–792. doi:10.1111/1468-2427.12887.
  3. Mbaye, J.F. (2015). Musical borderlands: A cultural perspective of regional integration in Africa. City, Culture and Society, 6(2), pp. 19–26. doi:10.1016/j.ccs.2015.03.002.
  4. Mbaye, J.F. (2014). Living the Hiplife: celebrity and entrepreneurship in Ghanaian popular music by Jesse Weaver Shipley (review). Africa, 84(2), pp. 339–341.
  5. MBAYE, J.F. (2014). JESSE WEAVER SHIPLEY , Living the Hiplife: celebrity and entrepreneurship in Ghanaian popular music. Durham NC and London: Duke University Press (hb $89.95 – 978 0 8223 5352 2). 2013, 344 pp. Africa, 84(2), pp. 339–341. doi:10.1017/s0001972014000096.
  6. Mbaye, J.F. (2010). AURA ou de la production politique de la musique hip hop. Cahiers de recherche sociologique, 49, pp. 147–160.

Report

  1. Pratt, A., kloosterman, R., Mbaye, J., greco, L., miguel, M.P., janowska, A. … Andreeva, D. (2019). The CICERONE project methodology..

Thesis/dissertation

  1. Mbaye, J. Reconsidering cultural entrepreneurship: hip hop music economy and social change in Senegal, francophone West Africa. (PhD Thesis)

Other (3)

  1. Mbaye, J. Five Video Clips from Senegal.

    [publisher’s website]

  2. Mbaye, J. On the Biopolitics of Hip Hop Galsen: Contestation Art and Democratised Imaginations.

    [publisher’s website]

  3. Mbaye, J. Spinning Translocal: A Discography of Central and West African Hip Hop.

Professional activities

Collaboration (industrial)

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Online article

  1. Unis par le Rap! (2013). Courrier International, Special Issue: Afrique 3.0 http://www.courrierinternational.com/article/2013/03/05/unis-par-le-rap