MUSICultures solicits articles for publication in a special issue on Songs and Singers of Social Protest, guest edited by Dr. Martin Power and Dr. Aileen Dillane, both of the University of Limerick, Ireland. We also continue to solicit articles on any topic related to our mandate.

The editors of this special issue invite papers that deal with protest songs, singers/songwriters and live and recorded performances (contemporary and/or historical) that draw inspiration from folk and vernacular music traditions in particular.

We invite authors to consider, for example, the ways in which we might explore the relationship between songs or singers of social protest and the vernacular music traditions of a given place. Can we map typologies of protest song across space, time and traditions? How do we productively talk about, theorize, and assess the relationship between songs of social protest and social movements? How do songs of social protest address inequalities of various types? What are the “structures of feeling” that make a protest song efficacious in a given historical/socio-economic/political moment? Do local protest songs translate or trans-mutate in transnational contexts? What makes a great protest singer?  What might we learn from iconic performers or performances? How important are discourses of “authenticity” and what informs such discourses? Is it possible to determine if a protest song has ever directly effected tangible change?

This special issue is inspired by the theme of the “Songs of Social Protest” conference held at University of Limerick in 2015.

MUSICultures is the peer-reviewed journal of The Canadian Society for Traditional Music / La Société canadienne pour les traditions musicales. It is a refereed journal published twice a year under the auspices of the Society. Membership in CSTM is not a prerequisite for publication.

MUSICultures publishes original articles in English and French on a wide range of topics in ethnomusicology, traditional music research, and popular music studies. MUSICultures welcomes articles on music in Canadian contexts as well as scholarship on any relevant issues in relation to any music practices in the world or to global processes. The journal also publishes reviews of books, and sound and visual recordings.

Articles are normally in the range of 6,000-7,500 words. You are invited to submit a 300-word abstract by May 10,2016. Following acceptance, the deadline for complete manuscripts is August 1, 2016.

Please visit our website for complete submission details:
http://www.yorku.ca/cstm/publications.

Submit manuscripts or questions to:
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

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Heather Sparling, PhD
Canada Research Chair in Musical Traditions
General Editor, MUSICultures

Cape Breton University
1250 Grand Lake Road
Sydney, NS  B1P 6L2
http://www.cbu.ca/

(902) 563-1242
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