Call for Papers and Performances: 3rd Annual Symposium of the LGBTQ+ Music Study Group

Legacies of Resistance, Responding to Oppression: Changing Dynamics in LGBTQ+ Music Activism and Scholarship

https://lgbtqmusicsg.wordpress.com/

26th– 27th April 2019

University of Southampton

Call for Papers and Performances

Deadline: 2nd January 2019

There have recently been several major legal victories for LGBTQ+ rights (e.g. the Indian Supreme Court’s decriminalisation of homosexuality, and the rulings for equal marriage in the US Supreme Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights), yet in the past year cultural tensions and prejudices seem to have been even more frequently exploited for political (and electoral) gain, including in some countries with previously favourable outlooks. Conscious of these changing dynamics, our third Symposium will focus on the current and historic ramifications of LGBTQ+ oppressions on creative and intellectual musical life, by exploring the impact of attitudes and beliefs such as heterosexism, monosexism and cis-sexism, and also, particularly within LGBTQ+ intersectional contexts, sexism, masculinism, racism, ableism, HIV/AIDSism, religionism, and so forth. How have such oppressions, and resistance to them, influenced music and its reception? How has musical and scholarly activism in these areas challenged social attitudes? How can musicians and researchers celebrate and draw on their queer – or other marginalised – subjectivities in their professional endeavours, in the pursuit of artistry, knowledge and social justice?

We welcome proposals for individual 20-minute presentations, shorter provocations, organised 60-minute panels and roundtable discussions, which investigate any of the above themes; we also welcome proposals on any aspect of LGBTQ+ music and music studies, and all its subdisciplines (including ethnomusicology, musicology, performance studies, theory and analysis, etc.). Please submit an abstract (250 words for individual presentations and provocations; up to 500 words for panels and roundtables) and a short bio (50 words per presenter) to lgbtqsymposium2019 @ gmail.com by 2nd January 2019.

We also welcome proposals for c. 20-minute lecture-recitals or performances of original compositions. In the first instance, lecture-recitalists/composers should send a proposal (250 words) and biography (50 words) to lgbtqsymposium2019 @ gmail.com by 2nd January 2019; depending on the number of submissions, applicants may be asked to submit a demo.

Interested in attending without presenting? Please contact us at lgbtqsymposium2019 @ gmail.com and we will let you know when registration opens. There will be a registration fee to cover costs.

The Symposium’s keynote speaker will be Prof. Lloyd Whitesell (McGill University), whose research interests include the music of Joni Mitchell, Benjamin Britten, Maurice Ravel and Charles Ives, as well as the Hollywood musical, film music, minimalism, modern tonalities, and the anxiety of influence. He was co-editor (with Sophie Fuller) of the essay collection Queer Episodes in Music and Modern Identity (2002), which won the 2002 Philip Brett Award.