Cambridge social anthropologist Dr Christina J. Woolner has won the 2024 International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (ICTMD) Book Prize. Each year, the prize recognises an exceptional book of outstanding scholarship.
Woolner – an affiliated researcher within the Department of Social Anthropology – was awarded the prize for her book, Love Songs in Motion: Voicing Intimacy in Somaliland (University of Chicago Press, 2023).
Drawing on her extensive experience, Woolner gives an intimate account of everyday life in Somaliland, explored through an ever-evolving musical genre of love songs. She reveals the capacity of music to connect people and feelings across time and space, creating new possibilities for relating to oneself and others.
Woolner’s book “opens the door to a fraught but beautiful tradition of singing love songs to communicate intimacy and build communitas”, said the ICTMD Subcommittee, which selects the winner.
The prize committee admired Woolner’s “clear, beautiful writing”, and her ability to embrace “the multivocal performance and content of love songs, in an Islamic environment where gender equality is not always a given, with scholarly analysis and ethnographic rigour”.
Since its publication, Love Songs in Motion has received widespread praise, including:
- “One of the best ethnographies ever written on an African popular culture genre, and it will be an instant classic.” (Karin Barber, University of Birmingham)
- “A beautiful and moving ethnographic account of the role and importance of hees jacayl, or love songs, in present-day Somaliland.” (Amanda Weidman, Bryn Mawr College)
Alongside the Best Book category, the ICTMD also announced prizes for Best Article, and Best Documentary Film or Video.