[ecrea] Rhythm Changes II: Rethinking Jazz Cultures conference, Salford, April 2013

Call for Papers

Rhythm Changes II: Rethinking Jazz Cultures

11-14 April 2013, Media City UK/University of Salford

An international conference hosted by the Rhythm Changes research 
project at the University of Salford.



Keynote Speakers

E. Taylor Atkins, Northern Illinois University

David Ake, University of Nevada, Reno



Conference outline

‘From its beginnings, jazz has presented a somewhat contradictory social 
world: Jazz musicians have worked diligently to tear down old 
boundaries, but they have just as resolutely constructed new ones; jazz 
provided one of the first locations of successful interracial 
cooperation in America, yet it has also served to perpetuate negative 
stereotypes and to incite racial unrest.’

David Ake, Jazz Cultures, 2



‘Practically all jazz discourse rests on the premise of American 
exceptionalism, the dogmatic conviction that “democracy, individualism, 
and social mobility, civil society, free enterprise, ingenuity and 
inventiveness, and material well-being” are peculiarly American traits. 
Rather than viewing frontier expansion, settler colonialism, slavery, 
immigration, industrialization, and cultural hybridization as 
transnational processes, many assume they are uniquely American, denying 
possible analogies to Australia, Brazil, Russia, and elsewhere.’

E. Taylor Atkins, Jazz Planet, xiii



Rethinking Jazz Cultures provides an opportunity to explore a number of 
critical questions bound up with jazz and the dynamics of culture, from 
Americanisation to the politics of migration and race, from the impact 
of globalisation and the hybridisation of musical styles to the creation 
of social institutions and distinct communities, from jazz’s shifting 
aesthetic status from popular to canonical ‘art’ music. Jazz continues 
to play a complex role in the cultural life of nations worldwide, 
shaping scenes, constructing communities and cultural values; the music 
feeds into historical narratives that are marked by conflict and 
contradiction but the role the music plays in everyday life is rarely 
understood. Whilst jazz has developed in a range of national settings 
through different influences and interactions, as evidenced in the first 
Rhythm Changes Conference in Amsterdam 2011, the music is also a 
transgressor of the idea of nation. ‘Rethinking Jazz Cultures’, 
therefore, aims to explore wider issues surrounding identity and 
inheritance, enabling unique perspectives on how culture is exchanged, 
adopted and transformed.



Rethinking Jazz Cultures is a three day multi-disciplinary conference 
that brings together leading researchers in the fields of jazz studies, 
media and cultural studies, history and American studies. The event will 
take place at the University of Salford’s prestigious new building at 
Media City UK, Salford Quays, commencing with a reception on Thursday 11 
April 2013. The Conference committee invites papers and panel proposals 
that feed directly into the Conference theme and is interested in 
featuring perspectives from a range of international contexts. Although 
not restricted to specific themes, possible topics could include:

· Jazz, Americanisation and the politics of globalisation

· Sonic cultural identities (African American, the Nordic Tone, South 
African jazz etc.)

· Jazz cosmopolitanism

· Migration and trans-cultural exchange

· Jazz scenes, contexts and places

· Sub-cultural practices

· Genre boundaries and hybridity

· Trans-national or post-national jazz sounds

· Postcolonial settings for jazz

· Jazz collectives and communities

· Media dissemination and the spread of jazz culture

· Venues, festivals and the dynamics of culture

· Jazz, censorship and political struggle

· Jazz in urban and rural spaces

· Jazz traditions

· Cultural politics of jazz

· Cultural memory and jazz

· Revising jazz history



The Conference committee welcomes individual papers and proposals for 
panels and roundtable discussions. For individual papers, abstracts of 
no more than 300 words should be submitted. Panels and roundtable 
proposals should include a session overview, participant biographies and 
description of individual contributions. Abstracts and proposals (as 
well as event queries) should be sent to Professor Tony Whyton 
((t.whyton /at/ salford.ac.uk)) by 5 November 2012.



Further event details will be published on the Rhythm Changes website 
over the coming weeks. Visit: 
http://www.rhythmchanges.net/rhythm-changes-conference-2013/



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