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The IMS in collaboration with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Music, is organizing an Intercongressional Symposium on the topic “Agency and Identity in Music” in Lucerne from July 7 to 10, 2019.

Link Conference website: hslu.ch/ims2019

Important notice: During the conference (July 9, 2019, 16:00–19:00) the IMS will be holding an Extraordinary General Assembly to which all IMS members are invited. IMS members are furthermore eligible for a reduced conference fee. Click here to join the IMS or renew your membership.

  IMS2019

Agency and Identity in Music—Call for Papers [Closed|

Rooted in socio-cultural research, the concept of agency is central to the understanding of human beings as individuals who actively shape their identities while acting within determined social and cultural structures. As such, agency emphasizes the temporary nature of identity as unfinished and in process, and underlines the ability of human beings to make decisions and to form, perform, and delineate identity within contextually given socio-cultural opportunities and constraints. Alfred Gell defined agency in his seminal study Art and Agency (1998) as a point where the possibly infinite chain of causality is broken and a “beginning” is attributed to a certain entity.

Musical products and practices, as output of the human achievement, are embedded in and shaped by the interaction between individual and societal agencies and identities. Music also acts as agent, shaping experiences, defining identities, and affecting human beings in their everyday life as well as in extraordinary life situations. The interplay between agency and identity plays roles in the creation, performance, communication, and reception of music. To articulate and operationalize the many ways in which agency and identity define themselves in and through music, the symposium invites proposals that explore the acting and identifying through music, the construction of identity in music, and the interconnectedness of these phenomena in the performance, perception, and mediation of music of all cultures and periods.

The aim of the symposium is to bring together theoretical and empirical research, promoting dialogue between scholars of different music research branches. Papers from any discipline are encouraged, including, but not limited to: music performance studies, music education studies, traditional and post-modern musicology, ethnomusicology, music iconography, sound studies, and cultural studies.

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit proposals for individual papers (20 min + 10 min for questions). Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Identity and agency in music education, aesthetics, and consumption
  • Composition and interpretation as output of agency and identity
  • Canon development, musical practices, and traditions
  • Music, gender, and agency
  • Musical impact on everyday life
  • Musician as agent, mediator, and communicator
  • Music and identity in culture and society
  • Music and non-human agency

The language of this symposium is English.

Important Dates
Deadline for abstract submission: February 28, 2019
Program committee decision: April 15, 2019
Conference registration: May 6–31, 2019
Conference: July 7–10, 2019

Abstract Submission Guidelines
Authors are invited to submit original and unpublished research. All paper submissions should be written in English. Abstracts should be no longer than 2,000 characters (including spaces) and contain information on research background, aims, methods, as well as results and implications, as long as these are known at the moment of application. All abstracts will be reviewed by the program committee and judged on originality, significance, and relevance to the conference subject. Please fill in the application form and send it as a Word document to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. [ABSTRACT SUBMISSION IS CLOSED]

Program Committee
Jen-yen Chen (chair), associate professor, National Taiwan University
Elena Alessandri, senior lecturer, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Music
Antonio Baldassarre, professor, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Music
Egberto Bermúdez, professor, National University of Colombia
Marc-Antoine Camp, professor, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Music
Manuel Pedro Ferreira, professor, New University of Lisbon
Jane Hardie, research associate, Medieval and Early Modern Centre, University of Sydney
Andrea Lindmayr-Brandl, professor, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg
Klaus Pietschmann, professor, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Laura Tunbridge, professor, University of Oxford

Links
Link Conference website: hslu.ch/ims2019
PDF Download the call for papers
Word Application form [ABSTRACT SUBMISSION IS CLOSED]


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