Jameson Foster is an ethnomusicology PhD student at CU Boulder exploring the ways in which music is used to construct identity in and of the Nordic countries, including traditional music styles, heavy metal, and the growing pagan music scene arising out of Viking market gatherings in Scandinavia. Jameson's current focus is on the ethnographic study of pagan music festivals as counter-memory in both Scandinavia and the United States, including Midgardsblot (Norway), Cascadian Midsummer (Washington), and Fire in the Mountains (Montana).
Jameson has a complimentary passion in ecological ethic and ecomusicology, with much of his work reflecting concern for how music works with or against attitudes of environmentalism, particularly how animist cosmology manifests in contemporary Nordic and pagan music practice, His teaching experience includes Music Appreciation, Vikings, and Norse Mythology here at CU, as well as 20th Century Music and Western Art Music at Johns Hopkins and Peabody Conservatory during his master's degree when working on his thesis focused on Edvard Grieg's influence on Belle Epoque Paris.Ìý
As a musician, Jameson is a performer of heavy metal, Appalachian old-time banjo, bluegrass, and traditional Swedish dance. He's also the founder of the Nordic Sound, a public archive for Nordic music across genres and generations, featuring interviews of prominent Scandinavian artists.