[Commlist] CfP: 2022 IASPM-Norden conference, "Disciplining Music Heritage”

2022 IASPM-Norden conference: "Disciplining Music Heritage"
organised jointly with the Finnish Society for Ethnomusicology
13–14 October 2022, Seinäjoki, Finland

The deadline for proposals is 31 March 2022. Please visit this website 
for the call and further details:

https://www.uniarts.fi/en/events/disciplining-music-heritage-conference/

Please direct your enquiries to (discipliningmusicheritage /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(discipliningmusicheritage /at/ gmail.com)>.

+++

The next IASPM-Norden Conference takes on the topic of music heritage in 
Seinäjoki 13–14 October 2022

The two-day conference is organised jointly by the Nordic branch of the 
International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and the 
Finnish Society for Ethnomusicology and hosted by the Seinäjoki Unit of 
the University of the Arts Helsinki.
Call for presentations

Music is deeply implicated in issues of intangible cultural heritage 
(ICH), and to further critical interdisciplinary investigation into the 
topic, the Nordic branch of the International Association for the Study 
of Popular Music (IASPM-Norden) and the Finnish Society for 
Ethnomusicology (SES) cordially invite all interested individuals to 
participate in the conference. As the title of the event evinces, a 
central aim is to interrogate the disciplinary boundaries, frameworks 
and repercussions when dealing with music as heritage. In addition to 
takes on academic disciplinary politics and idiosyncratic whims of 
scholarship, the organisers invite proposals addressing all levels and 
settings of music heritagisation, ranging from global organisations and 
national authorities to local tourist boards and municipal 
administration of creative industries.

Suitable themes and topics include, but are not restricted to, the 
following:

    Theory and definitions of music heritage. Scholarly debate about 
music heritagisation has increased tremendously in recent years. For 
instance, roughly two thirds of the peer-reviewed articles that mention 
“music heritage” have been published after 2010. Additionally, special 
academic journal issues have been devoted to popular music and jazz 
festivals. But how exactly is music heritage defined and conceptualised 
in this discussion; are certain genres and repertoires deemed heritage 
more readily than others, and what is the weight of disciplinary 
settings and distinctions in the process? How do ethnomusicology, 
popular music studies and heritage studies interrelate as they engage 
with music as intangible cultural heritage? Is “heritage music”, as 
suggested by some, simply a new type of “popular music”, and if so, how 
might such a reconceptualisation affect the logic of categorising music 
in general?

    Politics of music heritage. It may be argued that “heritage” is 
primarily a value, not a thing, and that instead of asking whether 
something is heritage or not, it is more pertinent to consider how 
heritage is done. Thus potentially anything can become heritage, raising 
immediate questions about the power relations and vested interests 
involved. Given the tendency to associate musical styles and genres with 
ethnicity, gender and subcultural formations in particular, at issue 
here is how music heritagisation interlinks with the construction of 
cultural identities. What are the ideological underpinnings at work, and 
how does music heritage become implicated in the dynamics of social and 
cultural inclusion and exclusion? What kind of explicit and implicit 
motivations and goals are involved when constructing music as heritage 
in different disciplinary environments? As heritage inevitably mobilises 
ideas of a common past, questions about music heritage are further tied 
to the dynamics of cultural memory and the disciplinary politics of 
music historiography; what are the social and cultural groups whose 
music is being remembered, historicised and heritagised, and how and why?

    Music in the official lists of intangible cultural heritage. Since 
2008, over three hundred phenomena relating to music and dance have been 
inscribed in the UNESCO ICH lists (ich.unesco.org), ranging from ones in 
need of urgent safeguarding such as Sega tambour Chagos of Mauritius, to 
globally widespread idioms representative of humanity, as Reggae music 
of Jamaica. Depending on definitions, the lists are dominated by forms 
of traditional music, alluding to questions about the importance or even 
dominance of ethnomusicological expertise in music-related ICH 
administration, and relatedly, about the role of UNESCO in sanctioning 
ethnomusicology as a field of heritage expertise. Also, the UNESCO 
framework stipulates that national heritage agencies maintain their own 
ICH lists.

    Music heritage, tourism and local branding. Music is often used in 
promoting certain locales, and especially in urban contexts styles and 
artists of popular music are exploited as indicators of vibrant 
creativity. The initiative for such action may originate from municipal 
economic interests, but is sanctioned on a global level again by UNESCO 
through its Creative Cities Network. Alongside Kingston and Liverpool, 
the network includes forty cities ranging from Adelaide and Amarante to 
Veszprém and Vranje. Here, relevant avenues of scrutiny include local 
branding as heritagisation (or vice versa), interconnections between 
heritage, creative industries and urban renewal, as well as dynamics of 
urbanisation in general. Moreover, at issue are the ways in which music 
and heritage are disciplined in the context of tourism, by tourist 
offices and travellers alike.

    Music heritage and interdisciplinarity. The levels and frameworks 
of disciplining music heritage are interconnected, especially through 
the reliance of global and national decision-making on scholarly 
expertise. In the field of ethnomusicology, for instance, the 
International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) is in formal 
consultative relations with UNESCO. But does this mean that 
ethnomusicology is more concerned with the conventional safeguarding 
paradigms of heritage management than popular music studies, where the 
emphasis is arguably on critical heritage studies, and that there is 
seldom any collaboration between the fields? This leads further to 
questions about how the notion of heritage relates to ideals of multi-, 
inter- and transdisciplinarity, especially as ethnomusicology, popular 
music studies and critical heritage studies alike tend to be celebrated 
as such, sometimes even in a self-aggrandising fashion.

In addition to presentations addressing the designated conference theme, 
all other topics falling within the remit of IASPM or SES are welcome.

Alongside conventional conference papers, panels and posters, the 
organisers welcome other presentation forms as well (e.g., films, 
workshops). Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words, 
preferably as a PDF file, to (discipliningmusicheritage /at/ gmail.com), no 
later than 31 March 2022.

Please make sure to include in your abstract:

    the name(s) of presenter(s) and their affiliation(s)
    the title of the presentation
    the text body, explicating the objective, materials and methods
    no more than five keywords

If you are proposing a full panel with individual presentations, please 
include an abstract of each presentation alongside a brief summary of 
the panel. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15 May 2022.
Guest speakers and further information

The organisers are happy to announce Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco 
(NOVA University Lisbon), Sverker Hyltén-Cavallius (Swedish Performing 
Arts Agency, Stockholm), Barley Norton (Goldsmiths, University of 
London) and Rosa Reitsamer (University of Music and Performing Arts 
Wien) as guest speakers at the conference.

Conference committee:

    Chair: Antti-Ville Kärjä, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland
    Secretary: Anna Peltomäki, University of Turku, Finland
    Jelena Gligorijevic, University of Turku, Finland
    Juho Kaitajärvi-Tiekso, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland
    Mischa van Kan, Linnæus University, Sweden
    Elina Westinen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Doctoral candidates wishing to participate may also be interested in a 
doctoral seminar to be held on 10–12 October 2022 at the conference 
venue. The theme of the seminar is the cultural study of music in all 
its variety.

The conference is hosted by the Seinäjoki Unit of the University of the 
Arts Helsinki. Seinäjoki is a regional urban centre located some 300 km 
north from Helsinki and served by several direct train connections 
daily. Details about registration, travels, accommodation and 
participation fees will be communicated in due course.

Enquiries about the conference should be sent to conference secretary 
Anna Peltomäki at (discipliningmusicheritage /at/ gmail.com).
---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------