Monique Charles

Monique Charles is a cultural sociologist and academic from the United Kingdom. She completed her PhD, passing her defense in December 2016 and graduating in 2017, and has approximately nine to ten years of experience in academia. Her scholarly work centers on establishing Black British music as a formal discipline of study, with a focus on the genre of grime and its intersections with race, class, gender, and spirituality in music. In addition to her role as a sound therapist, she teaches undergraduate students, informally mentors PhD students, serves on the editorial boards of journals, reviews peer-reviewed articles and book proposals, and pursues her own research and writing on Black British music from various angles. She has provided expert contributions to national exhibitions, including one at the British Library in 2024 and an ongoing project at the V&A East, and offers expert opinions to newspapers. She is also a professional bodybuilder. Her long-term goal is to establish a research center dedicated to large-scale national and international projects on Black British music, fostering dialogue with other music genres.