Dr. Golam Rabbani
Dr. Golam Rabbani is a Lecturer and former Assistant Professor (limited-term) in the School of Creative Industries at Toronto Metropolitan University. His interdisciplinary scholarship lies at the intersection of creative and music industries, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, and community-centred intervention, with particular attention to South Asian creative industries. Grounded in the interconnected themes of migration, creativity, and social justice, his research examines how cultural production, AI, community collaboration, and institutional practice can illuminate questions of workplace sustainability, ethics, and leadership. His doctoral research and subsequent projects have been supported by several funding bodies, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). His publications have appeared in edited collections and in a range of social sciences and humanities journals. He is currently completing a monograph while also advancing a co-edited book project.
With over sixteen years of university teaching experience in Canada and abroad, Dr. Rabbani has held Lecturer and Assistant Professor positions in multiple institutional contexts. Before joining Toronto Metropolitan University in 2022, he taught at Queen’s University and Carleton University. His teaching spans creative industries theory and process, music industries, collaboration, management, research methods, and social justice. His pedagogy emphasizes collaborative learning, critical reflection, and strong connections between classroom inquiry and the realities of contemporary creative industries. Shaped by a transnational academic journey, he brings comparative and globally informed perspectives to higher education.
In addition to teaching and research, Dr. Rabbani has been actively involved in academic service, creative community engagement, research leadership, and collaborative programming. He performs Bengali folk and classical music.
Public Profiles:
Migration, displacement, and creative Labour
Creative communities and subculture
Workplace, sustainability, and creativity
South Asian creative industries and cultural studies
Creative labour and AI
Music industries
2026. Non-consumerism, Meditation, and Wellbeing: Music Education in Baul Communities and Folk Industries in Bangladesh. Andre de Quadros and Sandra Oberoi (Eds). Music Education in South Asia: Context and Practice. London: Routledge. 2025.
2022. Ecocentrism and Bauls: Lalon and Radharaman’s Meditative Activism. Samina Luthfa, Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan, and Munasir Kamal (Eds). Bangladesh Environmental Humanities. New York: Lexington. 2022. 195-206.
2026. Music Industries, Spiritual Lyrics and Folklore: From Bhakti Poetry to Bauls. Shamsad Mortuza and Kaiser Hoque (Eds). Routledge Handbook of Bangladeshi Literary Culture. London: Routledge (in press, forthcoming)
2026. Weaver’s Music: Folk Songs and Creative Industries in Bangladesh. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 13(01), 252–273.
2025. Spiritual Leadership in Baul Folk Traditions: A Cross-Cultural Framework for Creative Organisations. Advances in Social Sciences and Management, 3(03), 17–30.
2019. Heterogeneity and Baul Spirituality: The Songs of Baul Taskir Ali in Bangladesh. Comparative Media Arts Journal 6. Simon Fraser University.
2019. Discrimination in ‘the city’: Race, Class, and Gender in Toni Morrison’s Jazz. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 10(05). 128-135.
2016. When the Subaltern Screams: Pedophilia and Patriarchy in Humayun Ahmed’s Pleasure Boy Komola. Reconstruction: Regionalism, Regional Identity and Queer Asian Cinema. 16(02).
2014. Darwin, Cognition and Literary Evocations of the Mind: The Case of Requiem for a Nun. Crossings ULAB Journal of English Studies. Volume 3 and 4. 21-28. ISSN 2071-1107.
2013. Media and Peeping Tom Culture: Violating Familial Privacy and Communal Responsibility in the Evolution of Voyeurism. Journalism and Mass Communication: David Publishing Company. Volume 3(5), 304-312.
2012. “Gender Hegemony in Feminist Film: ‘Woman-hero’ and Identity Politics in Rudaali”. Harvest. Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature. Volume 27. ISSN 1729-8326.
2011. Decentering the Hegemonic ‘Centre’: ‘Palabras Liminares’ and Ruben Dario’s Poetic Identity. Harvest. Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature. Volume 26. ISSN 1729-8326.
2011. Reality TV or Voyeur TV: Television Shows Instigating Voyeurism.” Nrivijnana Patrika. Journal of Anthropology: Jahangirnagar University. Volume 16. ISSN 1680-0621.
2010. The Quest for Wording the Word: Communication Crisis and Alienation of Language in Wole Soyinka’s The Road. Harvest. Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature. Volume 25. ISSN 1729-8326.
2009. Stage within Stage: Naturalism and Spatial Dimensions in August Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Harvest. Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature. Volume 24. ISSN 1729-8326.
2009. Staging the Stage: The Expressionist Manifestation of Spatial Discourse and Colour in August Strindberg’s Ett Dromspel (A Dream Play). Eastern University Journal. Volume 01, No: 02. ISSN 1998-7889.
2025. Bangladeshi Creative Subcultures and Cultural Resilience in Toronto. LSE South Asia Centre. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2025/02/24/bangladeshi-creative-subcultures-and-cultural-resilience-in-toronto/ (external link)
2023. The Creative Industries in Bangladesh: The Case of Coke Studio Bangla’s “Deora.” The Artifice. https://doi.org/10.32920/24750018.v1 (external link)
2022. Review of Music Downtown Eastside: Human Rights and Capability Development through Music in Urban Poverty by Klisala Harrison, MUSICultures 49: 313-316. 2022.
2015. In the Light of What We Know: A Novel of Its Time (book review).” Crossings: ULAB Journal of English Studies. Volume 6. 263-265. ISSN 2071-1107. 2015.
2015. Light or Dark Complexion: Colourism in Bangladesh. https://en.ntvbd.com/comment/6068/Light-or-Dark-Complexion-Colourism-in-Bangladesh (external link)
2025. Spiritual Resonances of Maizbhandari Songs: Eco-Centrism, Adivasi Rights, and Resistance in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. Society of Ethnomusicology 70th Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, October 23-26. Paper presented on October 26.
2025. Transcending Trauma through Songs: Baul Lyric Literature in Bangladesh. ACCUTE, Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities Canada, George Brown College, Toronto. May 30-June 4. Paper presented on June 01.
2024. Music as Resistance: Creative Practices of South Asian Newcomers in Canada. Society of Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting. Virtual October 17-26. Paper presented on October 17.
2024. Non-Consumerism, Meditation, and Wellbeing: Music Education in Baul Communities and Folk Industries in Bangladesh. IAFOR Paris Conference on Arts and Humanities. Paris, France. June 13-17. Paper presented on June 15.
2024. Refugee Youth, Identity, and Social Media: Young Immigrants and Arts Practices in Canada, The 14th Asian Conference in Cultural Studies, Tokyo Japan, May 23-27. Paper presented May 25.
2023. Civic Commons and Canadian Creative Industries: Exploring South Asians' Experience. Conference Title: Communities and Workplaces: Immigrants and Refugees in North America, University of Central Florida. Held: March 18-20. Paper presented on March 19.
2022. Shelter in the Forest: Akhra as the Eco-spiritual Space in Baul Literature and Music in Bangladesh. Conference Title: The Annual Conference of the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. Held: May 13-15. Paper presented on May 15.
2022. Selfies, Self-promotions, and Malignant Narcissism: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Folk Lyrics on Gen Z’s Virtual Habits (remote). Conference Title: Folklore and Virtual Culture. School of Language, Literature, and Culture, Central University of Punjab. August 17-19. Paper presented on August 19.
2022. The “Other” Folk Industry Online: Virtual maizbhandary Performances, Affect, and “bad faith” in Bangladesh. Conference Title: The Virtual Otherwise (online). Society of Cultural Anthropology. June 2-4. Paper presented on June 03.
2025-Present: Music and Creative Project Model Evaluator, AI/LLM Pilot Project (Model Evaluator, Casual). This work evaluates AI-generated music models through musicology, ethnomusicology, data governance, and ethics, with attention to cultural fidelity, authorship, labour, and the future of music production in creative industries.
2024-2025: South Asian Newcomer’s Music (Principal Investigator). This short project explores displacement, marginalization, and newcomer experience through music-making practices in Canada, focusing on diasporic creativity, sonic resistance, intergenerational transmission, and equity in Canadian creative industries.
2023-2024: Bhakti at Work: Lyric-Literature and Music-Led Practices for Well-Being and Belonging in North American Organizations (Principal Investigator). This short project examines how devotional music and lyric-based practices shape workplace well-being, belonging, and relationality, situating music as a resource for organizational culture and creative-industry sustainability.
2023: Soup Salon: AI, Decolonization, and Performance Spaces in Creativity (Co-Investigator). This project explores music, decolonization, AI, and performance through research-creation methods, focusing on ethical co-creation, alternative performance spaces, and critical interventions in contemporary creative industries.
2022-2023: Research-Creation Workshop Projects in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area (Research Lead/Facilitator). These workshop-based projects examined devotional music practices in organizational and diasporic settings, positioning collaborative performance, workplace well-being, and transnational cultural expression within broader creative-industry frameworks.
2016-2021: Commodifying Baul Spirituality: Changing Baul Literature and Music in Bangladesh (Doctoral Project). This doctoral research investigated how Baul music and lyric-literature were reshaped through commodification, media circulation, and consumer culture, with particular attention to spirituality, authenticity, agency, and inequality in the music industries of Bangladesh.
2015-2016: Ecocriticism and Baul Songs: Lalon and Radharaman as Eco-poets (Principal Investigator). This research explored Baul songs as environmentally grounded cultural production, connecting lyric-literature, soundscape, performance, and material practices to questions of sustainability, community resilience, and folk creative industries.
2010-2011: Tagore’s Formation of Cosmopolitanism: A Reconstruction of Lyric-Literature and Cultural Concepts (Principal Investigator). This project examined Tagore’s lyric-literature and music as interconnected sites of cosmopolitan cultural production, highlighting circulation, pedagogy, and media dissemination as formative processes within South Asian creative industries.
- 2024/10 MLA (Modern Language Association) Professional Development Grant
- 2023/01-2023/8, New Collaboration Grant, The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University
- 2023/01-2023/06, Research Grant for Dual Citizens Abroad, Bangladesh Folklore Society
- 2019/9-2021/8 SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship Award, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada
- 2018/9 – 2019/8 Queen’s Graduate Travel Grant
- 2016/9 - 2019/8 Queen’s Graduate Award, Queen's University at Kingston
- 2016/9 - 2018/8 Principal’s International Doctoral Award, Queen's University at Kingston
- 2016/9 - 2018/8 International Tuition Award, Queen's University at Kingston
- 2017/2 – Received Queen’s University Nominations for Vanier and Trudeau Scholarships
- 2015/7 Leadership Award on Ethnic Studies, Economic Relations Department, Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh
- 2012/2 Leadership Award in Folklore Studies, Bangladesh Folklore Society, Dhaka
- 2013/9 - 2015/8 Erasmus Mundus Scholarship in 2013-14 and 2014-15 (to study in Belgium for two years), European Commission and Lund University
- 2013/3 Best Research and Collaboration Award (honor), Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh
- 2011/4 Academic Leadership Award for Interdisciplinary Projects, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Jahangirnagar University
- 2010/2 PKSF (Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation) Best Volunteer Award, Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation (PKSF), Bangladesh