CfP: In The Breaks- 10th annual meeting of the European Hiphop Studies Network (07.-09.06.2027, RITMO, University of Oslo) Deadline: 01.12.2026
In The Breaks
RITMO and the Department of Musicology will host the European Hiphop Studies Network’s 10th annual meeting at our conference from the 7th to the 9th of June 2027.
Time and place: June 7, 2027–June 9, 2027, RITMO
When The European Hiphop Studies Network’s extended family—the wider posse—meets in Oslo for the network’s 10th annual meeting, we will turn our collective focus to liminal spaces: border crossings and transitions between categories, where something becomes something else or rubs against something different. “The Black tradition is double-voiced,” as Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote, and in the layering of voices (and in the breaks between them), the distinctive aesthetic of hip hop (and its siblings and homies) does its work. Playful and prophetic, both in-your-face and hiding in plain sight, these aesthetic expressions are often polyphonic: more often both/and than either/or, and often ephemeral or in-between.
“Aesthetics” is a fraught term, potentially carrying different connotations across communities, fields, and traditions. We invite discussion and exploration of the politics of aesthetics as a concept and of the study of “hip hop aesthetics” as a practice. However, the primary motivation behind the conference theme is to place the art—the music, choreography, paintings, fashion designs, album covers, music videos, et cetera—front and center. We take inspiration from Tricia Rose’s “foundational aesthetic aspects of Black art”: flow, layering, and ruptures in line. We return to Olly Wilson’s identification of common features of “Black Music as an Art Form”. While the aesthetics of hip hop and hip hop-related practices are inextricably tied to social, cultural, historical, and political, we ask: what happens if we frame our inquiries and analyses from the aesthetic to the cultural? Or what if we simply probe as deeply between the layers of a piece of art as we can? Could something happen in the breaks between perspectives and methodologies?
The conference host, RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion (and the Department of Musicology) at the University of Oslo, have spent a decade conducting interdisciplinary research into virtually anything related to rhythm, time, and motion. There are shared epistemological sensitivities between RITMO and the fundamentally interdisciplinary field of hip hop studies, which makes us incredibly excited to welcome both members of the EHHSN and other scholars to three days of Knowledge exchange. Together with Oslo’s vital practitioner communities, we will take part in panels, keynotes, ciphers, concerts, parties, poster sessions, live research, and ad hoc hangouts—exploring the aesthetics of hip hop and its sibling art forms.
Any contribution that speaks to the conference topic in some way is welcome. We particularly invite proposals that explore phenomena in the breaks between, for example:
- Categories (rhythmic, genre-related, etc.)
- Modalities (visual, auditory, haptic, etc.)
- Elements (graffiti, emceeing, entrepreneurship, etc.)
- Disciplines (music theory, literature, dance studies, psychology, etc.)
- Artistic practice and research (or different artistic or research practices)
- Traditions/styles (genres, historical practices, etc.)
- Communities (collaborations, oppositions, developments, etc.)
- Histories/hegemonies (narratives, perspectives, chronicles, etc.)
Possible proposal formats include:
- Papers (15 minutes, followed by 5 minutes for Q&A)
- Posters (open format, but please keep it somewhat sensible)
- Themed sessions (collections of related papers)
- Workshops (60-minute sessions of practical, hands-on activities, preferably using the conference venue’s alternative spaces—studio, beatmaking lab, small concert space, etc.; contact us for specifications)
- Other formats, such as panels, concerts, ciphers, and dance parties, are also welcome. We are happy (and hyped) to accommodate exciting ideas that take advantage of our physical infrastructure.
Please send abstracts of up to 500 words as an attached PDF to the following email address by 1 December 2026: inthebreaksconference[at]ritmo[dot]uio[dot]no.
The conference will take place at the Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo from 7 to 9 June 2027.