[ecrea] CFP: BFE One-Day Conference - Radio and Ethnomusicology: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

BFE One-Day Conference – Saturday 22 October, 2016
Radio and Ethnomusicology: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

University of Edinburgh and the Museum of Communication, Scotland
Keynote: Timothy D. Taylor (UCLA)

Radio was one of the most important innovations of the 20th century, 
reconfiguring notions of intimacy, ushering in new forms of consumer 
economy, and playing a primary role in the rise of entertainment culture 
(Taylor 2012). At the same time, radio contributed to the 
democratisation of everyday life, reinvented a sense of national 
community, and created new communicative potentials for marginalised 
social groups (Scannell 1989). Politically, radio has been at the centre 
of global events such as the rise of National Socialism in Germany in 
the 1930s (Birdsall 2012), the Algerian Revolution (Fanon 1965), Cold 
War antagonism and cooperation (Badenoch et al 2013), and the Rwandan 
Genocide (Kellow and Steeves 1998). Across the world, it has been a tool 
of nation building, nationalism and internationalism, war and peace, 
sounding and silencing.	
Despite proclamations of the death of radio (and television) in the 21st 
century, as a mode of broadcasting its contemporary importance has not 
diminished. Rather, broadcasters have migrated online, new digital 
listening forums have adopted techniques and practices from older media, 
and listening publics continue to be shaped by radio. Globalising and 
localising processes have been described as complementary rather than 
organised hierarchically (Appadurai 1996), with sounds and technologies 
made meaningful locally. Radio has adapted to the new technological 
forms and social logics of the digital era; it could therefore be argued 
that radio is as influential as ever.

It is a good time, then, to examine the relationships – both historical 
and contemporary – between radio and ethnomusicology. Within the 
discipline, radio has been heard in numerous ways: as a force of 
modernity that would destroy traditional music cultures; a means of 
circulating and developing respect for certain musics; a vehicle for 
musical scholarship; an accompaniment to musical migration and 
displacement; and a contact zone between music cultures. Moreover, radio 
broadcasters have frequently worked collaboratively with 
ethnomusicologists, commissioning, archiving and broadcasting field 
recordings (Davis 2005, Arnberg et al 1969, Reigle 2008). And radio 
serves as a productive site of ethnomusicological study today in its 
capacities as mediator, disseminator, and disciplinary mouthpiece.

Radio means different things in different times and places, and 
ethnomusicology is well equipped to provide form-sensitive and 
ethnographic accounts of its varying roles in musical and social life. 
This one-day conference seeks to explore these relationships by 
addressing themes including:

o	Roles of radio in local and global music cultures
o	The politics of music broadcasting
o	Radio and musical mediation
o	Availability and access to broadcast archives
o	Broadcasting folk and world musics
o	Radio, displacement and migration
o	Digital broadcasting, web cultures, and ethnomusicology
o	Histories of radio and fieldwork
o	Nationalism, internationalism, and nation building

We invite proposals of individual papers of 20 minutes’ duration, or 
panels of 3 related papers. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words, 
and should be sent to (radioethnomusicology /at/ gmail.com) by 5pm on Monday 
2nd May. Notification of acceptance will be no later than 6th June. 
Please note that presenters must be registered members of the British 
Forum for Ethnomusicology (https://bfe.org.uk/join-bfe).

Conference Website: https://sites.eca.ed.ac.uk/radioethnomusicology/

DEADLINE for abstracts: 2nd May, 5pm.

Programme Committee:
Dr Annette Davison, Prof Simon Frith, Dr Mark Percival, Dr Tom Wagner, 
Dr Tom Western

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