Dear all,

Just a reminder that the deadline to submit a proposal for the "Christian
Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives" conference, which
will be held near Oxford in August 2015, is next *Friday, 12 December,
2014.*

Please find the call for papers below. It can also be found on the
conference website at http://congregationalmusic.org, where the online
form for submission of proposals is also available.

Kind regards,
Laryssa Whittaker (on behalf of the conference organisers)



Call for Papers
Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives Conference
Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, United Kingdom
4-7 August 2015


Congregational music-making is a vital and vibrant practice within
Christian communities worldwide. It reflects, informs, and articulates
convictions and concerns that are irreducibly local even as it flows along
global networks. Congregational song can unify communities of faith across
geographical and cultural boundaries; however, it can also be used to mark
divisions between Christians of different denominations, cultural
backgrounds, and social classes, and to negotiate or articulate difference
in relation to religious outsiders. We therefore cannot understand the
meanings, uses, and influences of congregational music within Christianity
without exploring both its local contexts and its translocal,
transnational, and global circulation.

The third biennial Christian Congregational Music conference will be held
in 2015. Its goal is to expand the avenues of scholarly inquiry into
congregational music-making by bringing together world-class scholars and
practitioners to explore the varying cultural, social, and spiritual roles
church music plays in the life of various Christian communities around the
world. To this end, the conference facilitates a multifaceted dialogue
among participants from a variety of academic disciplines, including
musicology, ethnomusicology, theology, anthropology, history, and
education.

The 2015 conference is focused on a sustained reflection about the
theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches used to study
congregational music. What new methodological approaches‹whether from the
hard sciences, social sciences, humanities, or theological disciplines‹can
be brought to bear on timely research questions, such as congregational
music's relation to indigenization, transnationalism, religious
experience, and ethics? What new understandings about congregational music
are generated with the introduction of theoretical perspectives from, for
example, gender studies, postcolonial thought, neuroscience, or political
economy? Although the Programme Committee will prioritise papers that
bring new insights to any aspect of theory or methodology, papers
addressing other topics relevant to Christian congregational music are
also welcomed. 

We are now accepting proposals (maximum 250 words) for individual papers
and for organised panels consisting of three papers. The online proposal
form can be found on the conference website at
http://congregationalmusic.org/content/proposals.

Proposals must be received by 12 December 2014. Notifications of
acceptance will be sent by 26 January 2015, and conference registration
will begin on 31 January 2015. Further instructions and information will
be made available on the conference website at
http://congregationalmusic.org.


CONFERENCE INFORMATION

 

Location:
Most conference sessions will be held at Ripon College Cuddesdon, a
theological college affiliated with the University of Oxford. The college
is located seven miles south-east of the Oxford city centre and is
accessible by car or bus. This year, we will also take an afternoon
excursion to Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
 


Fees:
Fees for conference registration, room and board will be posted in
January. Ripon College Cuddesdon has extended reasonable rates to make
this conference affordable for domestic and international scholars
in various career stages. There are a small number of bursaries available
for graduate student presenters. Students interested in being considered
for a bursary should tick the box on the paper proposal form.

 

Conference schedule:
The schedule for the four-day conference maintains a unique balance of
presentations from featured speakers, traditional conference panel
presentations, and roundtable discussions. A draft conference
programme will be available in February 2015 on the conference website.


Featured Speakers:

 
Prof Teresa Berger
Professor of Liturgical Studies and Thomas E. Golden Jr. Professor of
Catholic Theology
Yale Divinity School, New Haven, USA

 
Dr Timothy Rommen
Associate Professor, Department of Music
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
 

Prof Carol Harrison
Professor, Department of Theology and Religion
Durham University, Durham, UK
 

Dr Lester Ruth
Research Professor of Christian Worship
Duke Divinity School, Durham, USA
 

Dr Vicki Brennan
Associate Professor, Department of Religion
University of Vermont, Burlington, USA
 

Rev Dr Joseph J Palackal
Christian Musicological Society of India
Kerala, India and New York, USA
 

Prof Fiona Magowan
Professor of Social Anthropology
Queen¹s University Belfast, Belfast, UK
 


Conference Organisers and Conveners:

The Rev Canon Professor Martyn Percy, Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford
Dr Monique Ingalls, Baylor University
Dr Tom Wagner, University of Edinburgh
Mark Porter, City University, London
Laryssa Whittaker, Royal Holloway, University of London


 
For all programme-related queries, please contact:
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