Julie Oleksiak, research coordinator at the Ethnopôle of the Rhône-Alpes Center for Traditional Music (CMTRA), is very familiar with the Haizebegi Festival. She helped found the festival in 2013 alongside Denis Laborde, her thesis advisor for her dissertation in the anthropology of music, which she completed at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) and defended in 2020. The focus of her research was Frédéric Deval’s transcultural music program at the Royaumont Foundation. In her work, she examines the activities of cultural operators who, by promoting cultural exchanges through music, convey a political message rooted in the celebration of cultural diversity.
At CMTRA, a cultural institution accredited by the Ministry of Culture, Julie Oleksiak’s research is linked to science outreach and cultural engagement projects throughout the region. She studies children’s songs, musical instruments, and the connection between music and emotion in residential care facilities. Music remains at the heart of her research, “as a gateway to understanding human societies.”
