CfP: »Musical Infrastructures in Times of Globalization: Pasts, Presents, and Futures«, 05.–07.11.2026, Bern (Deadline 15.04.2026)
Conveners: Jasmin Goll, Destiny Meadows
Deadline: April 15, 2026
Especially over the last two decades, the “infrastructural turn” in the humanities has asked scholars to critically analyze the systems, networks, and materials that organize and create our environmental relations. In music and sound studies, recent work on “audible infrastructures” has considered its methodological use as an analytic, bringing to the forefront labor conditions, supply chains, media extractivism, and waste (Devine/Boudreault-Fournier 2021, Gribenski/Pantalony/Tkaczyk 2026, Jones 2025). While this work has unpacked the globalized networks beneath music production and consumption, new approaches to “musical infrastructure studies” (Pestel/Rempe 2025, Willson 2026) have sought to extend historical chronological scopes and use infrastructural thinking to emphasize relationality, mobility, and dis:connectivity (between and of various musical actors, institutions, genres, etc.) in music histories. By thinking through such relations, musical infrastructure studies may further unlock globalized histories of music and sound.
This workshop aims to continue discussions between audible infrastructure studies and musical infrastructure studies, emphasizing the “hyphenation of the material and the cultural” (Amin 2014, Willson 2026). It seeks to explore the demarcations and convergences between both approaches. We understand infrastructures as (non-)human, networked, stable, supporting, material entities/physical constructions/systems that encourage circulation, exchange, and mobility, and relation (Larkin, 2013, van Laak 2020).
We invite scholars who engage with music and sound and work across these intersections in different geographies and temporalities. This 3-day workshop widens discourses surrounding infrastructure in music scenes, histories, and locales—with a special focus on their relation to globalization. Specifically, we wish to further unpack such topics as (but not limited to):
infrastructures across musical genres, periods, practices, and media formats (audio-visual, print, etc.)
sonic infrastructures in times of war/geopolitical conflict
impact of failure, manipulation, or destruction of infrastructures on music
circulations and movements of music, musical practices, etc., through infrastructures
mutual impact of infrastructures on music and sound
(im)mobility of music through the existence or absence of infrastructures
intersections of infrastructural, musical, and global imaginaries
nuances of infrastructural connectedness and disconnectedness
In addition to a keynote from PD Dr. Martin Rempe (University of Konstanz) and 30-minute presentations, the workshop will include cross-talk and a reading session. By engaging with the individual projects and discussions addressing overarching themes, we wish to question and refine infrastructural definitions for music and sound studies.
This workshop is co-organized by Jasmin Goll (University of Bern) and Destiny Meadows (UNC Chapel Hill) and will take place at the Institute of Musicology at the University of Bern, Switzerland, from November 5 to November 7, 2026. The workshop’s language is English. We seek to cover accommodation for two nights (for European-based scholars) or three nights (for scholars based outside Europe) in Bern and provide financial support for travel expenses. The workshop will take place in person, but will provide a hybrid option for selected parts of the program if needed.
Participants are asked to submit their proposal for a 30-minute paper (250 words) and a short bio (120 words) as a pdf electronically by April 15, 2026, to Jasmin Goll, jasmin.goll[at]unibe[dot]ch, and Destiny Meadows, dmeadows[at]unc[dot]ed. Contributions from scholars working in music and sound studies, theater studies, (global) history, cultural studies, media studies, and science and technology studies are equally welcome. We specifically encourage applications from early-career scholars and scholars from the Global South. The applicants will be notified by April 22, 2026.
Further information can be found here.