John David Vandevert

Keywords

• hip hop
• russian rap
• popular music
• russian music

Research

I’m John David Vandevert, a Ph.D. student at Uppsala University in the department of musicology under the supervision of Dr. Ann Werner and Dr. Per-Henning Olson. I’m currently studying post-Soviet Russian rap during the 1990s, focusing on the aestheticized (predominantly music-based) negotiation of the post-Soviet, ‘Russian,’ identity through rap. As part of my research, I am also collecting archival materials from the 1990s pertaining to rap in Russia as well as archiving online sites about rap in the Russian language and ‘Russian’ rap. I am an avid piano player, usually only dwelling in repertoire from the early-19th century backwards, and I find interest in almost any area of philosophy (specifically German Idealism and Hegel's philosophical writings), musicology, humanities studies (and other affiliated areas), and Hip Hop studies.

If you would like to discuss working together, please reach out!

• "Russian rap has long held up a mirror to Russian society – and the current reflection isn’t flattering." The Conversation (2023).