CFP: Music, Sound, and Trauma: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Location and dates: Online, February 12-14, 2021

Keynote Speakers: Maria Cizmic (University of South Florida), and others TBA

Although trauma has always shaped human lives, discussions of trauma have come to the fore in our current moment. From the pandemic’s impacts—including global spikes in domestic violence and adverse impacts on mental health—to the tragedies of systemic racism and police brutality, trauma dominates contemporary conversations for many people. Today’s focus on trauma follows a decade of burgeoning attention to the socio-cultural and psychological causes and effects of trauma in popular media and academic scholarship, including music studies. This conference aims to bring together those working in and beyond music and sound studies to address the ways that music and sound historically and contemporaneously have been intertwined with trauma. In addition, we would like to hear from scholars working with music and sound in pedagogical contexts with a focus on trauma-informed teaching and learning.

Supported by an Indiana University Presidential Arts & Humanities Grant and taking place February 12-14, 2021, this online conference will feature invited talks, roundtables, paper presentations, workshops, and seminars. In addition to roundtables, panels, and workshops given by leading researchers in music and trauma studies, musicologist Maria Cizmic (University of South Florida) will give a keynote lecture, with additional keynote performers and speakers to be announced at a later date. This conference is connected with a proposed Oxford Handbook of Music, Sound, and Trauma Studies and a special issue of the Journal of Music History Pedagogy—conference organizers will invite contributors to participate in these projects.

We invite proposals for 20-minute paper presentations, panels of 3-4 participants, workshops, lecture recitals, and performances (live or pre-recorded) that address music, sound, and trauma in various social, cultural, and historical contexts. 

Please send proposals to musicsoundtraumaconf2021 -at- gmail.com by September 1, 2020. For more details regarding proposal expectations, visit the conference's website: https://musicsoundtraumaconf2021.com/. Conference organizers will notify all applicants of their decisions by November 1, 2020.

Program committee: Erin Brooks, Jacqueline Fortier, Michelle Meinhart, and Jillian Rogers