Gavin Western has written a new publication, Fieldwork Playlist featured in Suomen Antropologi. Fieldwork Playlist emerged from a conference of the same name at Goldsmiths back in 2013. The idea was a simple one: “For our fieldwork playlist, each contributor will pick one song and recount the story of how that song came to hold significance in relation to their research encounters and experience” (Fieldwork Playlist Call For Papers 2013). Each of the papers here explores the evocative nature of music in relation to the experience of social science fieldwork. Each author has selected a song as a starting point to consider their experience in the field. Music is woven into the fabric of the social world of the field, our location in it, our collection and interpretation of data and the writing up process. This edited collection brings together diverse experiences and reflections through the evocative medium of particular songs.

Martyn Wemyss’s contribution titled Michael Jackson’s – ‘Billy Jean, reflects on the first few months of his fieldwork in Bolivia and how the death of Michael Jackson ‘prompted a shift in the soundtrack to daily life: for a brief window his music was everywhere’.

The latest issue of Suomen Anthropologi also contains entries from former students and associates of the department, Dominique Santos, Willam Tantam and Kieran Fenby-Hulse and can be downloaded online.