Biography
Kristina is an Assistant Professor in Sociology of Arts and Culture at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. She joined ESHCC after completing her PhD in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science and working as a postdoctoral researcher in Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. Overall, her work explores how intersectional inequalities of 鈥榬ace鈥, class and gender are reworked in and through culture, ranging from wider cultural discourses of migration, citizenship and belonging to concrete processes of material culture, media representations, creative labour and cultural production. Her particular research interests lie in the field of music and its relationship to urban multiculture, and in the contingent social effects of on-going diversity and inclusion discourses in the cultural industries, as well as in the relationship between a politics of cultural production and a politics of care. Kristina鈥檚 work draws from current debates in sociology, cultural studies, critical 鈥榬ace鈥 and migration scholarship and is informed by Feminist and postcolonial epistemologies.
Publications
Books
(2024) The Sound of Difference: Race, Class and the Politics of Diversity in Classical Music. Manchester University Press.
(Working manuscript) Cultures of Care? The Politics of Creative Work in an Unequal World.
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
Introduction to the Special Issue on 鈥楪ender, Sexuality, and State Violence: International Perspectives on Institutional and Intersectional Justice鈥. Societies (forthcoming). [with Ladan Rahbari, Conny Roggeband]
Making Genre: The Aesthetic Affordances of Governmental Funding and its Effects on Emerging Interdisciplinary Artists in the Netherlands. Cultural Trends (conditionally accepted). [with Sofia Viera]
鈥楾he Art of (Self)Legitimation: How Private Museum Founders Narrate Themselves as Elite Actors in and Beyond the Art World鈥. Socio-Economic Review, 2023.
The Global Rise of Private Art Museums: A Literature Review. Poetics, 2022. [with Johannes Aengenheyster, Andrea Friedmann Rozenbaum, Olav Velthuis, Mingxue Zhang]
An Institutional Politics of Place: Rethinking the Critical Function of Art in Times of Growing Inequality. Cultural Sociology, 2022. [with Chris Upton-Hansen and Mike Savage]
Producing (Musical) Difference: Power, Practices and Inequalities in Diversity Initiatives in Germany鈥檚 Classical Music Sector. Cultural Sociology, 2022; originally published online in 2021.
Unequal Entanglements: How Arts Practitioners Reflect on the Impact of Intensifying Economic Inequality. Cultural Trends, 2022. originally published online in 2021.
Playing the System: 鈥楻ace鈥-Making and Elitism in Diversity Projects in Germany鈥檚 Classical Music Sector鈥. Poetics, 2021.
Figures of Crisis: The Delineation of Un/Deserving Refugees in Germany. Sociology 52(3): 534-550, 2018. [with Billy Holzberg and Rafal Zaborowski]
Book Chapters
鈥榃estern鈥 Classical Music, Diversity Work, and its Colonial Imprints: Challenges, Limits, and New Directions鈥. In: Johnson-Williams, Erin; Kok, Roe-Min; Liao, Yvonne (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Music Colonialism. Forthcoming at Oxford University Press (forthcoming).
鈥(Un)settling Hegemonies 鈥 The Institutional Challenge of Diversity Initiatives in the Classical Music Sector鈥. In: Bull, Anna; Nooshin, Laudan; Scharff, Cristina (eds.) The Classical Music Profession: Inequalities and Exclusions. Oxford University Press, 2023.
Book Reviews
鈥楳usic Generations in the Digital Age: Social Practices of Listening and Idols in Japan Communications鈥. European Journal of Communication Research (forthcoming).
鈥楤lack Utopias: Speculative Life and the Music of Other Worlds鈥. Ethnic and Racial Studies (2021).
鈥楢ccess, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Cultural Organizations: Insights from the Careers of Executive Opera Managers of Color in the US鈥. Journal of Arts Management, Law, & Society, 51(4): 270-272 (2021).
鈥楨ntitled: Discriminating Tastes and the Expansion of the Arts鈥. Cultural Trends, 29(4): 320-322 (2020).
Other writings and selected media outputs
鈥楧o diversity initiatives in classical music address 鈥 or unwittingly reinforce 鈥 existing inequalities?鈥. LSE Inequalities Blog. Blog post (2024).
鈥楾he Sound of Difference: Race, Class and the Politics of 鈥橠iversity鈥 in Classical Music鈥. New Books Network podcast. Hosted by Dave O鈥橞rien (2024).
鈥楤eyond the Global Boom. Private Art Museums in the 21st Century鈥. Public Report. University of Amsterdam () [with Olav Velthuis, Johannes Aengenheyster, Andrea Friedmann Rozenbaum] (2023).
鈥楻eport on the art world鈥檚 response to the challenge of inequality鈥. LSE Research Online () [with Chris Upton-Hansen, Mike Savage, Nicola Lacey, and Sarah Cant] (2019).
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication
- kolbe@eshcc.eur.nl
More information
Work
- Kristina Kolbe, Olav Velthuis, Sara de Andrade Silva, Johannes Aengenheyster & Andrea Friedmann Rozenbaum (2026) - -
- Kristina Kolbe (2026) - - Sociology Compass, 20 (5) - doi: -
- Sara de Andrade Silva, Kristina Kolbe & Olav Velthuis (2026) - - British Journal of Sociology - doi: -
- Kristina Kolbe, Lisa Gaupp & Christina Scharff (2025) - - Cultural Sociology, 19 (4) - doi:
- Kristina Kolbe & Sofia Vieira (2025) - - Cultural Trends - doi:
- Ladan Rahbari, Conny Roggeband & Kristina Kolbe (2025) - - Societies, 15 (4) - doi: -
- Sara de Andrade Silva, Kristina Kolbe & Olav Velthuis (2025) -
- Sofia Vieira & Kristina Kolbe (2025) - - Cultural Trends - doi: -
- Kristina Kolbe (2024) - -
- Kristina Kolbe, Ladan Rahbari & Conny Roggeband (2024) - - Societies -
- Kristina Kolbe (2024) -
- Kristina Kolbe (2023) - - Socio-Economic Review, 22 (3), 1119-1140 - doi: -
- Olav Velthuis, Kristina Kolbe, Johannes Aengenheyster, Andrea Friedmann Rozenbaum, Marton Gera & Mingxue Zhang (2023) - -
- Kristina Kolbe (2023) - - doi: -
- Kristina Kolbe, Olav Velthuis, Johannes Aengenheyster, Andrea Friedmann Rozenbaum & Mingxue Zhang (2022) - - Poetics, 95 - doi:
- Kristina Kolbe (2022) - - Cultural Sociology, 16 (2), 231-249 - doi:
- Kristina Kolbe (2021) - - Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45 (13), 2572-2574 - doi:
- Kristina Kolbe (2021) - - Cultural Trends, 31 (3), 257-272 - doi:
- Kristina Kolbe (12 februari 2026) - Should artists speak out in times of social unrest?
- Kristina Kolbe (5 oktober 2024) - The Sound of Difference: Race, Class and the Politics of 'Diversity' in Classical Music
- Kristina Kolbe (4 juni 2024) - The Sound of Elites: How elites navigate a meritocractic and anti-elite world
- Kristina Kolbe (2026) - Recognition as infrastructure and the elastic politics of scale: how grassroots cultural collectives construct 鈥榬ecognition from below鈥 (Speaker)
Activiteit: Invited talk 鈥 Academic - Kristina Kolbe, Pauwke Berkers, Julian Schaap, Yosha Wijngaarden & Thomas Calkins (2026) - We Want More: Music / Sociology! (Organiser)
Activiteit: Organising and contributing to an event 鈥 Academic - Kristina Kolbe (2026) - British Journal of Sociology (Journal) (Reviewer)
Activiteit: Publication Peer-review 鈥 Academic - Kristina Kolbe (2026) - Race and Media conference (Participant)
Activiteit: Attending an event 鈥 Academic - Ellen Loots & Kristina Kolbe (2025) - Valeria Giudici (Host)
Activiteit: Hosting an academic visitor 鈥 Academic - Kristina Kolbe (2025) - Music, precariousness and the (im)possibilities of protest 鈥 or鈥 are artists too poor to protest? (Speaker)
Activiteit: Invited talk 鈥 Popular - Kristina Kolbe (2025) - Precariousness and care in grassroots music (Organiser)
Activiteit: Organising and contributing to an event 鈥 Professional - Kristina Kolbe (2025) - Private Museums as sites of Elite legitimation - an analysis of museum mission statements (Speaker)
Activiteit: Invited talk 鈥 Academic - Kristina Kolbe (2025) - Sociology Compass (Journal) (Reviewer)
Activiteit: Publication Peer-review 鈥 Academic - Kristina Kolbe (2025) - synth workshop with Oram Awards and Ladies Music Pub (Organiser)
Activiteit: Organising and contributing to an event 鈥 Popular
- Kristina Kolbe (2025) - Shortlisted for The BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize is for the best first and sole-authored book within the discipline of Sociology
- Kristina Kolbe (2024) - Visiting Research Fellow
- Kristina Kolbe (2023) - Early Career Fellowship
- Kristina Kolbe (2023) - NWO veni grant
- Kristina Kolbe (2022) - CUS SAGE PRIZE
- Kristina Kolbe (2019) - Marshall Institute small grant funding
- Kristina Kolbe (2014) - Carlo Schmid Fellowship of the German Academic Exchange Service (working at UNESCO)
- Kristina Kolbe (2009) - Fellow of the German National Merit Foundation (now alumni)
London School of Economics and Political Science
- Start date approval
- augustus 2024
- End date approval
- augustus 2026
- Place
- LONDON
- Description
- This is a research fellowship without fees/hours
- Year Level
- BA-1, BA-1, Pre-master
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CC1003
- Level
- Pre-master
- Year Level
- Pre-master
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CC1003A
- Level
- MA
- Year Level
- MA
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CC4008
- Level
- MA
- Year Level
- MA
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CC4050
- Year Level
- MA, MA, MA
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CC4122
- Year Level
- Minor, Other
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CC9002
- Level
- MA-1
- Year Level
- MA-1
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CS5002
- Level
- MA-2
- Year Level
- MA-2
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CS5050
