Assistant Professor Dr. Marko KÖLBL
Marko Kölbl is a tenured Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and Chair of the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology at mdw, where he has been working since 2014. He is the co-founder of mdw’s MA program in Ethnomusicology, for which he has served as Chair of the Curriculum Committee since 2022. Marko Kölbl teaches academic courses in ethnomusicology and artistic courses in traditional music of South-Eastern Europe. He studied classical piano education (BA 2010, MA 2012) and earned his PhD (2017) at mdw with a dissertation on Burgenland Croatian and Croatian laments.
Dr. Kölbl’s scholarly research focuses on music and dance in relation to ethnic minorities and migration, as well as gender and sexuality. Approaching scholarship and fieldwork from a queer and ethnic minority positionality, Dr. Kölbl values academic engagement critical of racism, heteronormativity, and coloniality. His ethnographic studies primarily focus on music and dance within the Croatian minority in Austria’s south-eastern province of Burgenland, as well as on forced migration from Afghanistan to Europe, especially following the Taliban takeover in 2021. Dr. Kölbl is dedicated to advancing theoretical and methodological perspectives in both minority studies and gender/queer studies in ethnomusicology.
Marko Kölbl has conducted extensive fieldwork in Austria on several ethnic minority communities, including the Burgenland Croats, Burgenland Hungarians, Burgenland Roma, Carinthian Slovenes, as well as music and dance traditions from Turkey and the former Yugoslav countries in Austria. His international fieldwork includes research in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Afghan refugees in Iran, with Roma in Serbia, and on music and dance in the Turkish and Georgian Black Sea regions. Marko Kölbl’s understanding of ethnographic fieldwork goes beyond conventional logics of collecting and recording, aiming instead for dialogical knowledge production centered on human relationships.
From 2018 to 2025, Dr. Kölbl served as Chair of the Study Group on Gender and Sexuality of the ICTMD – International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance. He has been a longstanding board member (since 2019) of the ESEM – European Seminar in Ethnomusicology. Since 2019, he has served on the International Advisory Board of the MMRC – Music and Minorities Research Center. Since 2023, Dr. Kölbl has been a member of the Advisory Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Austrian UNESCO Commission.
Marko Kölbl has delivered over 80 scholarly talks at universities and conferences worldwide. He has edited several volumes and published numerous peer-reviewed articles based on personal relationships, oral histories, and archival sources. From 2020 to 2025, he served as Review Editor of the journal Music & Minorities; he is currently a member of the Editorial Board of the Swiss Yearbook of Musicology. Marko Kölbl regularly acts as a peer reviewer for scholarly articles and research proposals, both nationally and internationally. He has also served on ICTMD’s Article Prize Committee in 2024 and 2025.
As a musician, Marko Kölbl is active in the field of Burgenland Croatian vocal music as a solo performer and vocal ensemble leader. He regularly performs as a singer and with his vocal ensemble (www.saristinjaki.at), with whom he has also produced an album and gives concerts on a regular basis. His artistic practice is closely tied to cultural work within the Croatian minority, emphasizing the communal aspect of the musical tradition he performs.
Contact: +43/1/711 55 4215 | Room: AW U 0230
E-Mail: koelbl-m@mdw.ac.at
