Dr Javier Rivas is an anthropologist, educator, and cultural manager whose work explores how listening is constructed, theorised, and transmitted within academic, corporate, and governmental institutions. He teaches critical theory, cultural management, and contemporary music at King’s College London, and is also a Visiting Lecturer and Researcher at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC).
He received his PhD in Music, Anthropology, and Education from King’s College London, where his AHRC-funded research examined processes of progressive institutional culture change in higher music education. He has conducted ethnographic and archival work at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). At ESMUC, he studied the production and transmission of an ethical form of listening oriented towards overcoming resistance to unfamiliar musical forms and cultivating openness to difference.
He also completed a BA in Musicology at the University of Oviedo, where he was awarded the SGAE End of Degree Prize. He later completed an MMus in Musicology and Ethnomusicology (Distinction) at King’s College London, funded by the Mutua Madrileña Foundation Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies (2019–20).
He is regularly invited to speak at cultural institutes, universities, and international forums across Europe and the United States, and his work has appeared in the International Journal of Community Music and Ethnomusicology Forum.
He is deeply committed to engaged pedagogical practice, and his teaching has been recognised through the Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and the 2026 KCL Seminar Leader of the Year Award. He has taught BA and MA courses at King’s College London, University College London, and ESMUC.
Alongside his academic work, he is an experienced cultural organiser, managing the national charity Water City Music and KCL’s award-winning King’s Music Academy, and serving on the board of trustees of the Lucille Graham Trust. He currently serves as the Conference Secretary of SEMPRE (the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research).
Email: javier.rivas_rodriguez@kcl.ac.uk
