Apologies for cross-posting
POPULAR MUSIC AND SONG RESEARCH PROJECT,
UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE
This research project is a joint initiative
of the French, German and Spanish and Latin American Studies (SPLAS)
departments of the School of Modern Languages and the Music department
at Newcastle. A number of researchers in the SML and Music department
had already developed research interests in various aspects of the
social, cultural, political and economic significance of popular music
in France, Germany, Spain and Portugal and in other Francophone,
Hispanic and Lusophone countries, and therefore a collaborative,
interdisciplinary and comparative programme of research seemed a
fruitful way of capitalizing on expertise in the SML and Arts Faculty
(and the universities of Northumbria, Sunderland and Durham). Links
with researchers nationally in the UK and in Europe and the United
States mean that the research project will be truly international.
Individually, the project leaders are Dr. Ian Biddle (Musicology)
[log in to unmask], Dr. Hugh Dauncey (French) [log in to unmask],
Dr. Vanessa Knights (Spanish) [log in to unmask], Professor
Richard Middleton (Musicology) [log in to unmask], Dr. José
Miguel Ribeiro-Lume (Portuguese) [log in to unmask], and
Professor Colin Riordan (German) [log in to unmask] Please get in
touch with any of us if you are interested in being involved in the
research project or if you have any comments, advice or information
you feel might be of benefit to us!
The Research group will be organizing a number of colloquia as the
research progresses and a final plenary conference to address more
fully the comparative and contrastive aspects of the project's
investigations. The Project leaders will also be guest-editing a
number of contributions to well-known music, cultural and area studies
journals.
The first day conference will be held on 11 September 2000. The aim is
to bring together scholars working in the field of popular music and
national identity to open up comparative areas of discussion and
debate.
The issue of national identity is of particular relevance at the turn
of the century as postmodern theorizing engages with the simultaneous
yet seemingly paradoxical processes of cultural homogenization and
cultural heterogenization that characterize interactions in
transnational global markets. Popular music is perhaps the cultural
product which most easily crosses national boundaries whilst
perversely defining the local space. It is a marker of collective
identity in that it is a cultural activity through which social groups
come to know themselves as groups. However, listening and performing
music as experiential processes are inextricably bound up with
subjective, individual responses that may not correspond to social
categories such as class, race and gender. The dialectic between
personal response and the material conditions of production and
consumption of popular music make this a particularly rich field for
the exploration of the construction of social identities and cultural
narratives.
It is hoped that papers will engage with issues of popular culture and
power such as the politics of cultural nationalism, Gramsci's concept
of the national popular, government broadcasting policies, censorship
of popular forms, popular music and political resistance; tensions
between the global and the local in transnational markets, questions
of authenticity, the cultural practices of diaspora and border
crossing.
Proposals for 20-minute papers, including an abstract of 250 words,
should be submitted by 1 May 2000. A selection of papers will be
submitted for publication to key Cultural Studies journals. Papers
should be in English.
Please address proposals and queries to:
Dr. Hugh Dauncey (Francophone): [log in to unmask]
Dr. Vanessa Knights (Hispanic and Lusophone): [log in to unmask]
(in Cuba 13 March to 9 April) Professor Colin Riordan (Germanic):
[log in to unmask]
School of Modern Languages
Old Library Building
University of Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
Tel: 00441912227441
Fax: 00441912225442
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sml/POPMUSIC/singing.html
Vanessa Knights
Room 5.33, Old Library
ext: 7480
fax: 5442
Dr Elizabeth Andersen
Department of German Studies
School of Modern Languages
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
Tel:[+44] 0191-222-7526
Fax:[+44] 0191-222-5442
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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