Jarrod Jansz Sim, Phd
(AMMR fellow)

Jarrod Jansz Sim is an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist whose research addresses sound, Indigenous knowledge, and musical sustainability across the Austronesian world, with particular focus on Borneo and Taiwan. He holds a PhD in anthropology and ethnomusicology from the Australian National University and is a Research Affiliate at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester. Jarrod has published his work in several journals such as the Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology and Etnofoor. His monograph, based on his doctoral research, is forthcoming with Leiden University Press.

He is PI of the British Council-funded Rinait Soundscapes project, documenting Kadazandusun ritual chanting traditions in Sabah, Borneo, in partnership with the Granada Centre and Sabah Arts and Culture Collective. He is also co-founder of Qadjai/Connecting Lines, a trans-Indigenous cultural exchange platform linking communities across the Pacific Rim. He serves as International Curator of the North Borneo Rainforest Festival.

His published and fieldwork-based research spans ethnomusicology, sensory anthropology, environmental humanities, and decolonial archival practice. Across this work, he returns to the question of how Indigenous musical traditions sustain themselves under conditions of cultural marginalisation, with particular attention to the cultural and institutional infrastructures that shape how musical knowledge is transmitted, recognised, and kept alive. Through sustained collaboration with Indigenous communities, heritage organisations, and arts collectives, he examines how practitioners mobilise sonic and expressive forms to maintain cultural continuity across shifting social conditions.

Jarrod received an AMMR seed money fellowship from MMRC to develop a research project provisionally titled: “Karungut in Motion: Heritage, Infrastructure, Invisibility.