Huib Schippers is UCLA Regents’ Professor for the Fall Semester 2022. He has a background in Indian classical music (sitar), music journalism, the record trade, music education, festival direction, research policy and leadership, and applied ethnomusicology. Schippers was instrumental in setting up public world music schools in The Netherlands (1990–1997), founded the World Music and Dance Centre in Rotterdam (1998–2003), established and directed the innovative Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre in Brisbane, Australia (2003–2015), after which he curated and directed the iconic record label Smithsonian Folkways (2016–2020).

With over 100 scholarly and public-facing publications to his name, Schippers’ most extensive research to date has focused on how people learn music around the world, resulting in his influential monograph Facing the Music: Shaping Music Education from a Global Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2010), and on music as Intangible Cultural Heritage, leading to two important edited volumes with OUP: Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures: An Ecological Approach (with Catherine Grant, 2016); and Music, Communities, Sustainability: Developing Policies and Practices (with Anthony Seeger, 2022).