Musics and Knowledge in Transit

Call for Proposals

October 28-31, 2010
Rectory of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Lisbon, Portugal

The Ethnomusicology Institute – Center for the Study of Music and Dance is pleased to host the international conference ‘Musics and Knowledge in Transit‘ at the Rectory of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa from October 28 to 31, 2010.
The official languages of the conference are: Portuguese, Spanish and English.

Instituto de Etnomusicologia
Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança (INET- MD)
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Universidade Técnica de Lisboa
Universidade de Aveiro

XI Conference of SIBE – Sociedad de Etnomusicología
III Conference of Musics in the Lusophone and Hispanic Worlds
I Conference of IASPM – International Association for the Study of Popular Music Portugal
VI Conference of IASPM, Spain
I Conference of ICTM, International Council for Traditional Music, Portugal


Conference Themes

Transatlantic Flows: The Iberian Peninsula, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean
The Iberian Peninsula, the countries of Africa, of Latin America and the Caribbean have together constituted the site of an extraordinary movement of peoples and cultural practices, especially with regard to music and dance. This legacy continues to shape cultural circuits of exchange into the present, informed both by numerous cultural affinities and by linguistic and cultural differences. These processes have led to the formation of a common history, marked by the realities of globalization, international migration and by broader cultural-political processes. An analysis of these processes centered on the Atlantic and on border territories and neighborhoods promises to bring new theoretical perspectives to the social sciences and, especially, to ethnomusicology. To what extent do historical and current circuits of exchange lead to the reformulation of cultural spaces, expressive practices and to their resignification? Might tackling these cultural flows lead to a new empirical, theoretical and critical understanding of the Atlantic?

Author Rights and Notions of Intellectual Property in Performative, Mediatized and Virtual Spaces
The legislation of author rights in the context of music and dance has proven ambiguous and difficult to implement. It recognizes the creation of works, purportedly original, realized by an individual or by a small group, yet it habitually does not take orally transmitted musics into account. Locally formed notions as to the nature and status of the ownership of orally transmitted expressive practices are often informed by an authenticity ideal that sometimes obscures the authority of the compositions themselves. Since the emergence of World Music, the appropriation and redistribution by the recording industries of musical elements from different cultural contexts in order to produce new musical forms and compositions is a process that has not been effectively regulated. How does legislation deal with local notions of property and creative practices in a mediatized environment? How does the legal system understand authors’ rights for musicians, the music industries and the communication media? To what extent can scholars contribute to the protection of musicians’ and dancers’ rights?

Communication Media, Technologies and Industries of Music, Dance and other Performing Arts: From the Printed Medium to the Internet
Different communication media and technological innovations have contributed to the shaping of the creation, reception and consumption of music and dance, from the appearance of the musical press, through musical theatre, phonography, radio, cinema, television and the Internet. We invite contributions that reflect on the function and impact of communication media and technologies at local, national and global levels taking into account performative, social, economic and political dimensions. How do technologies shape music and dance production? What challenges do the new means of production and dissemination through the net pose for the creation, management and wide propagation of the performing arts? How and to what extent do scholars use communication media and technologies as sources and/or tools in their research.

The Construction/Reception of the Performative Body
Performative events have their primary material location in the human body and thereby contribute simultaneously to its construction. Each of the arts disciplines models the body in its own particular way. From a contemporary perspective, the body of the creator and of the performer establishes, in both music and dance, networks that implicate the body of audience members. How can these ways of modeling the performative body be characterized taking into account also the sensorial networks at work in the processes of creation and reception? To what extent are contemporary reconfigurations of the performing arts and technological developments reflected in the development of performance and interpretation techniques? How is the incorporation of technology processed on the ground?

Dialogic Debates in Ethnomusicology
The postmodern outlook has brought in its wake a profound shift in ways of doing scholarship. In the social sciences and humanities, the complicity of the “other” in the production of knowledge and in its application has come to occupy a prime place in numerous theoretical debates about dialogic practice. In ethnomusicology, the researcher frequently constructs, with the help of the “other”, his/her specific relationship with the music studied, and his/her capacity to practice and reflect upon it. What are the consequences of the dialogic debate for the production, dissemination and application of knowledge? How can the scholar and her/his interlocutors negotiate the production of ethnomusicological discourse? How might we resolve the differences in perspective between the researcher and his/her interlocutors?

Music and Dance: New Educational Challenges
Recent debates on education have emphasized topics such as the need to develop creativity, to improve communicative skills, and the ability to work collaboratively, with a view to making room for the promotion of citizenship. The performative arts of music and dance, in both specialized and generalist programs of education, represent in this respect privileged sites for that promotion. What role might ethnomusicological and ethnochoreological research play in this process? What theoretical and practical propositions might we offer in curricula, in teacher training, in the management of interculturalism, in the integration of schools within communities and in assuring their engagement with social development in general?

New Research
Proposals on new research on other relevant topics are also welcome.


Abstracts

Abstracts of up to 300 words should be submitted in the appropriate form available in the attachment or in one of the following websites (www.fcsh.unl.pt/inet
www.sibetrans.com/lisboa2010) by October 19, 2009 to the following email:
lisboa2010@sibetrans.com. Following evaluation by the Program Committee, authors will be notified by December 1, 2009.
For further questions about the program and the local arrangements, please contact Susana Moreno Fernández at the following email:
smoreno@fcsh.unl.pt. Please do not send proposals or abstracts to this address.


Program Committee

Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco (co-chair, INET-MD, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Susana Moreno Fernández (co-chair, INET-MD, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
João Soeiro de Carvalho (INET-MD, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Rui Cidra (INET-MD, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Susana Sardo (INET-MD, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal)
Daniel Tércio (Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal)
Sivia Martínez (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain)
Héctor Fouce (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain)
Ian Biddle (Universtity of Newcastle, United Kingdom)
Elisabeth Lucas (Universidad Federal de Río Grande do Sul, Brazil)
Miguel Angel García (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Local Arrangements Committee

Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco (co-chair, INET-MD, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal).
Susana Moreno Fernández (co-chair, INET-MD, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Ana Filipa Carvalho (INET-MD, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Pedro Russo Moreira (INET-MD, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Gonçalo Antunes de Oliveira (INET-MD Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Flávia Lanna (INET-MD, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal)
Luís Figueiredo (INET-MD, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal)
Ana Cristina Oliveira (INET-MD, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal)


Keynote address

The keynote address will be delivered by Anthony Seeger, professor of Ethnomusicology and Director of the Ethnomusicology Archive at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).


Proposals

Proposals are invited in the following categories, which should be submitted in the appropriate form. The program committee encourages the submission of panel and roundtable proposals.

1. Individual paper
Individual paper presentations are 20 minutes long to be followed by 10 minutes of discussion. The proposal must include a 300 word maximum abstract.

2. Panel
Organized panels are 90 minutes (three papers, 20 minutes each, followed by 10 minutes discussion) or two hours long (four papers, or three papers and a discussant). A proposal by the panel organizer (300 words) as well as by each individual presenter is necessary (300 words each). Where an independently submitted abstract appears to fit a panel, the program committee may suggest the addition of a panelist.

3. Film/video session
Recently completed films introduced by their author and discussed by conference participants may be proposed. Submit a 300 word abstract including titles, subjects, and formats, and indicate the duration of the proposed films/videos and introduction/discussion.

4. Poster Session
A space where presenters can exhibit posters and remain on hand for a scheduled period for discussion will be provided. A 300 word abstract by the poster’s author must be submitted.

5. Forum/Roundtable
Forum/Roundtable sessions provide opportunities for participants to discuss a subject with each other and with members of the audience. Sessions of up to two hours long should include at least four but no more than five presenters. We encourage formats that stimulate discussion and audience participation. The organizer will solicit position papers of up to 15 minutes from each presenter and will facilitate questions and discussion for the remaining time. Proposals for forums/roundtables should be submitted by the session organizer (300 words).


Instructions for abstracts

Abstracts should include a clear focus of the problem, a coherent argument, knowledge of previous research, and a statement of the implications for ethnomusicology. Because abstract review is anonymous, do not include your name, the names of other panelists, or the names of fellow researchers in the body of the abstract.


Timeline and requirements

– Call for papers by 15 July 2009.
– Deadline for submission of proposals by 19 October 2009.
– Notifications of acceptances by 1 December 2009.The following websites contain the
proposal form, updated information about the conference program, registration fees and other requirements: (www.sibetrans.com/lisboa2010;
www.fcsh.unl.pt/inet).

Leave a Reply