Dr Maria Witek

Dr Maria Witek

Department of Music
Associate Professor

Contact details

Address
Room 106, Ashley Building
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Witek’s main interest is in researching the psychology, cognitive science and cognitive philosophy of musical experience, with a focus on rhythm, timing, emotion and body-movement. Much of her work is centred on trying to understand how dance music experiences and practices emerge from interactions between embodied, neural, musical and social processes. To date, she has focused primarily on the study of groove – the pleasurable experience of wanting to move to music. More recently, she is studying the cognitive mechanisms underlying rhythmic skill in DJing as well as the social and embodied experiences of disabled and neurodiverse DJs. She uses research methods from across experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, qualitative social psychology, participatory action research, digital music analysis and phenomenology. You can read more about her work and the work of the Witek Lab 

Qualifications

  • BA Musicology, University of Oslo (2006)
  • MA Music Psychology, University of Sheffield (2008)
  • DPhil Music, University of Oxford (2013)

Biography

I have worked and studied across music and cognitive science since finishing my undergraduate degree in musicology in Oslo. I completed an MA in Music Psychology at Sheffield University, and a doctorate in Music at the University of Oxford. Before coming to Birmingham, I was Assistant Professor at the Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University, Denmark.

Teaching

  • Introduction to Music Cognition
  • Music and Emotion
  • Music and Gender

Postgraduate supervision

I am interested in hearing from potential doctoral students wishing to study music cognition, psychology and philosophy of mind, especially (but not limited to) rhythm, timing, body-movement and emotion.


Find out more - our Music postgraduate study  page has information about doctoral research at the University 麻豆精选.

Research

The main interest of Dr Witek and is in researching the psychology, cognitive neuroscience and cognitive philosophy of musical experience, with a focus on rhythm, timing, emotion and body-movement. Much of Dr Witek's work is centred on trying to understand how dance music experiences and practices emerge from interactions between embodied, neural, musical and social processes. She uses research methods from across experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, qualitative social psychology, digital music analysis and phenomenology. In 2022, she embarked on a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, investigating . She is also a co-investigator on the project, which is testing a model of how music ensembles synchronise their playing to achieve a cohesive performance. The model will be used to develop a rehearsal system where musicians can practice with virtual ensembles that adapt their timing to the musician in real time.

Other activities

I frequently act as scientific advisor for artists and composers working outside academia, who actively incorporate scientific aspects of music in their work.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Schiavio, A, Witek, M & Stupacher, J 2024, '', Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 14, 1326773.

Matthews, TE, Lumaca, M, Witek, MAG, Penhune, VB & Vuust, P 2024, '', Brain Structure and Function, vol. 229, no. 9, pp. 2299-2313.

Senn, O, Hoesl, F, Bechtold, TA, Kilchenmann, L, Jerjen, R & Witek, M 2024, '', PLOS ONE, vol. 19, no. 11, e0311877.

Bechtold, TA, Curry, B & Witek, M 2024, '', PLOS One, vol. 19, no. 5, e0303309.

Pando鈥怤aude, V, Matthews, TE, H酶jlund, A, Jakobsen, S, 脴stergaard, K, Johnsen, E, Garza鈥怴illarreal, EA, Witek, MAG, Penhune, V & Vuust, P 2023, '', European Journal of Neuroscience.

Witek, M, Matthews, T, Bodak, R, Blausz, M, Penhune, V & Vuust, P 2023, '', PLOS One, vol. 18, no. 2, e0281057.

C茅spedes-Guevara , J & Witek, M 2023, '', Psychology of Music.

Bechtold, T, Kilchenmann, L, Curry, B & Witek, M 2023, '', Music Perception, vol. 40, no. 5, pp. 353鈥372.

Matthews, T, Witek, M, Thibodeau, J, Vuust, P & Penhune, V 2022, '', Music Perception, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 423鈥442.

Danieli, L, Witek, M & Haworth, C 2021, '', Journal of New Music Research , vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 266-278.

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Witek, M 2023, . in EH Margulis, P Loui & D Loughridge (eds), The Science-Music Borderlands: Reckoning with the Past and Imagining the Future. MIT Press, pp. 161-182.

Wing, A, Witek, M, Stables, R & Bradbury, A 2022, . in M Phillips & M Sergeant (eds), Music and Time: Psychology, Philosophy, Practice. Boydell & Brewer, pp. 73-96. <>

Witek, M 2022, . in M Doffman, E Payne & T Young (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Time in Music. Oxford Handbooks, Oxford University Press, pp. 234-252.

Other contribution

Round, E, Singh, B, Kahn, U, Hancock, M, Carver, A, Amot, W, Witek, M & Garcia, LM 2024, .. <>

Preprint

Tomczak, M, Li, MS, Bradbury, A, Elliott, M, Stables, R, Witek, M, Goodman, T, Abdlkarim, D, Luca, MD, Wing, A & Hockman, J 2022 '' arXiv.