Presentation
Lucy Cathcart Frödén is a researcher, educator and community artist whose work spans sound studies, sociology and participatory arts, and examines the role of artistic collaboration in social change. Her practice-based PhD at the University of Glasgow used creative collaboration with people affected by the criminal justice and asylum systems to better understand processes of social integration. From 2023-26 she held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oslo, researching the role of music and sound in prisons in Norway, Iceland and Ireland. This research has been cited in the Norwegian and Icelandic parliaments and featured in national media in various countries.
She is co-editor of Sound and Detention: Towards Critical Listening, Sonic Citizenship and Social Justice (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026), a major interdisciplinary collection bringing together over forty contributors from five continents to examine how sound, music and silence shape power, participation and everyday life in prison.
Lucy has also led a wide range of participatory projects in collaboration with Malmö Konsthall, RFSU, UNESCO, and the Nobel Museum in Oslo. As artist-in-residence at Eslövs Stadsbibliotek she spent several months collaborating with SFI students and their teachers, exploring how multilingual and creative activities can strengthen language learning and social bonds. Her collaborative audio productions have been broadcast internationally via Radiophrenia (UK), Resonance FM (UK), PARSE (SE), Radio Nova (NO), Cities and Memory (UK), Struer Tracks (DK) and Audio Flux (US). She is also a member of Medea Lab, a transdisciplinary media lab where researchers and artists address cultural and societal challenges through experiments, installations and interventions.
Lucy is glad to re-join Malmö University as part of LISTEN, a participatory research project exploring the role of culture, sound and listening in building sustainable urban life. The project focuses on Malmö's unique Culture Sound Zone and is conducted in partnership with the NGBG association, funded by Vinnova.
Selected audio pieces here.
