2018 Apr 05/06 Tromsø: Conference « Music and Gender in Balance

CfP: Conference: Music and Gender in Balance, 5th & 6th April 2018, University of Tromsø

Music is performance. Gender is performance. The arts have a social responsibility when it comes to the representation and negotiation of gender as one of the foremost structuring forces in society. The last two decades have seen a growing interest in music and gender research in Scandinavia. Music education, in particular, is a melting pot of gendered performances. Moreover, today’s musical cultures are (still) highly gender segregated, both horizontally in terms of instrument preferences, genre, and artistic expressions, and vertically in terms of the reputation of different professional fields and positions. Recent initiatives in gender equality show that the field of research on music and gender in the Northern countries is ripe for change. The question is how to conduct these changes. How can we empower present and future generations to be both sensible and critical with regard to gendered performances? How can we as researchers and educators encounter gender bias in both research design and daily life in academia? And how can we collaborate with other academic disciplines in order to solve research questions related to power, justice, and freedom?

In cooperation with the BALANSE project and the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research at UiT, the Swedish-based Gender and Music Research Network (GeMus), and UiT’s new research group Multimodality, Art, and Gender in Interdisciplinary Communication (MAGIC), researchers from all academic disciplines researching music and musical culture are invited to discuss these questions theoretically, methodologically, pedagogically, and artistically.

Keynote Speakers

 Victoria Armstrong (St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London)

 Cecilia Björck (University of Gothenburg)

 Astrid Kvalbein (University of Oslo)

The conference languages will be English and the Scandinavian languages.

Presentation formats: 20-minute presentations, poster presentations, artistic performances/installations, round-tables, panels, flash papers, PechaKucha, and other innovative forms.

Abstract submission deadline 30th September 2017: Abstracts of up to 150 words should specify the contribution of the paper to both the discipline and society. We encourage explicitly intersectional, inclusive, multimodal, and artistic approaches. Abstracts should be sent to bjarne.isaksen@uit.no. Responses will be sent out by the end of October.

Network meeting: We invite you to attend a network meeting on Friday 6th April 2018 to outline future approaches and research questions, as well as current trends and frames, in order to put forward the idea of more institutionalised music and gender research in the Nordic countries.

The conference is organised by the music conservatoire at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway.

For enquiries please contact: Hilde Blix (hilde.blix@uit.no) and Lilli Mittner (lilli.mittner@uit.no).

2018-04-05u06 Symposium CfP_Music_and_Gender_in_Balance