CFP: The Stimulated Body and the Arts: The Nervous System and Nervousness in the History of Aesthetics (Durham, UK)

THE STIMULATED BODY AND THE ARTS: THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND NERVOUSNESS IN THE HISTORY OF AESTHETICS
DURHAM UNIVERSITY, UNITED KINGDOM
17 - 18 FEBRUARY 2011
CALL FOR PAPERS

Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease
Durham University, UK
Venue: Hatfield College, Durham, UK
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 31 July 2010

This conference will discuss the history of the relationship between aesthetics and medical understandings of the body. Today’s vogue for neurological accounts of artistic emotions has a long pedigree. Since G.S. Rousseau’s pioneering work underlined the importance of models of the nervous system in eighteenth-century aesthetics, the examination of physiological explanations in aesthetics has become a highly productive field of interdisciplinary research. Drawing on this background, the conference aims to illuminate the influence that different medical models of physiology and the nervous system have had on theories of aesthetic experience. How have aesthetic concepts (for instance, imagination or genius) be grounded medically? What effect did the shift from animal spirits to modern neurophysiology have on aesthetics?

The medical effects of culture were not always regarded as positive. The second focus of the conference will be the supposed ability of excessive reading, music and so on to ‘over-stimulate’ nerves and cause nervousness, mental and physical illness, homosexuality and even death. It will consider questions regarding the effects of various theories of neuropathology and psychopathology on the concept of pathological culture. What kinds of culture could lead to such over-stimulation? How was this medical critique of culture related to moral objections and changes in gender relations, politics and society? How was it linked to medical concern about lack of attention and willpower?

This interdisciplinary conference brings together scholars working in a wide range of fields, including not only the history of medicine but also in subjects such as art history, languages and musicology. Abstracts for 20-minute papers (maximum 250 words) should be submitted electronically to the organisers by 31 July 2010 at the following address: James.kennaway at durham.ac.uk

Organisers
Dr James Kennaway
Professor Holger Maehle
Dr Lutz Sauerteig
http://www.dur.ac.uk/chmd/

CFP: Music and the Written Word (University of California, Santa Barbara)

MUSIC AND THE WRITTEN WORD - A GRADUATE CONFERENCE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA

16 - 17 JANUARY 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS

The UCSB Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music (CISM) is seeking submissions for the 2010 “Music and the Written Word” Graduate Conference to be held at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on 16-17 January 2010. Run by and geared towards graduate students, this interdisciplinary conference will focus on music, the written word, and their convergence. We welcome submissions covering the full spectrum of methodologies, disciplinary approaches, and all genres of music.

Possible topics could include, but are not limited to:

--Relationship between music and text
--Text setting
--Musical criticism
--Representations of music in literature and poetry
--Notation and transcription
--Music inspired by literature or poetry
--Music in print media
--Musical poetics
--Music as language/language as music
--Rhetoric and musical practice
--Musical analogy
--Music and grammar
--Music and worship/liturgy
--Language in performance practice
--Concrete words, “ineffable” music
--Music and political speech
--Music and code (C Sound, etc.)

Please send a 200-300-word abstract of your paper to no later than 9 October 2010. Include the abstract as both a file attachment and in the email text. Paper presentations will be allotted twenty minutes, with ten additional minutes for questions and answers.

Details regarding travel, accommodations, and the keynote address will be forthcoming. Updated information will be posted on our website:

http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/musicwrittenword/

For questions, suggestions, or other communication, please write to: musicandthewrittenword at gmail.com.

CFP: Region State, Nation, Community - New Research in Scandanavian and Baltic Studies (Seattle, Washington)

REGION, STATE, NATION, COMMUNITY: NEW RESEARCH IN SCANDANAVIAN AND BALTIC STUDIES
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF BALTIC STUDIES (AABS)
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
22 - 24 APRIL 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS

The 22nd Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) will take place from April 22-24, 2010 in Seattle, Washington. The conference will be particularly innovative in being the first joint conference with the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS).

AABS welcomes papers, panels, and roundtable presentations for the first joint conference of Scandinavian and Baltic Studies in the United States. The conference aims to highlight and foster academic inquiry that draws comparisons between Scandinavia (Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland) and the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). Papers that examine stateless peoples and those left outside of the Scandinavian/Baltic approach, but sharing the same geographic space, are equally welcome. Papers and panels devoted to individual states are also welcome. Contributions are encouraged from disciplines including (but not limited to): anthropology, architecture, communication, cultural studies, demography, economics, education, environment, ethnic relations, film studies, fine arts, gender studies, geography, history, international relations, law, linguistics, literature, memory, political science, psychology, public health, religion, sociology, tourism, and advancing Baltic and Scandinavian studies. Presentations are not to exceed 20 minutes in length.

Proposals from Ph.D. students will be considered for a Presidents’ Panel on Scandinavian and Baltic Studies that recognizes the most accomplished and innovative work of new scholars.

Paper and panel proposals must include an abstract (no more than 250 words) and a one to two-page curriculum vitae. Send this material embedded in the body of an e-mail (no attachments) to Aldis Purs at (aldisp at u.washington.edu) by December 11, 2009. Paper submissions can be mailed to:

22nd AABS Conference Chair
University of Washington,
Box 353420
Seattle, WA 98195-3420

Conference Website: http://depts.washington.edu/aabs/

CFP: Readings of Diffcult Freedom (Toulouse, France)

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: "READINGS OF DIFFICULT FREEDOM"

SOCIÉTÉ INTERNATIONALE DE RECHERCHES EMMANUEL LEVINAS (SIREL, PARIS)

NORTH AMERICAN LEVINAS SOCIETY (NALS, USA)

TOULOUSE, FRANCE

5 - 9 JULY 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS

First published in 1963, with a second edition in 1976, /Difficile Liberté/, /Essais sur le judaïsme/ is considered Levinas' most accessible book and an excellent introduction to his work. This collection of essays, which appeared in a variety of journals (/L'arche, Information juive, L'esprit, Evidences/, etc.) reflects the society, culture and philosophy of France from the 1950s to the 1970s. While closely linked to this era (end of World War II, the discovery of the horror of the concentration camps, Stalinism, the founding of the State of Israel) /Difficile Liberté/ is by no means a collection of circumstantial writings.

In /Difficile Liberté/ Levinas defines post-Holocaust Judaism, and sets out the requirements and need for Jewish thought and education in an authentic but critical dialogue with modern society. These considerations are frequently interspersed with references to writers and thinkers who influenced Levinas such as Claudel, Heidegger, Hegel, Spinoza, S. Weil, Gordin and Rosenzweig, but more often to sacred texts, the Bible and the words of the Sages of Israel which Levinas continually emphasized the need to study. Does Levinas' /modernity /paradoxically lie in his appeal to Jews to return to these old "worm-eaten tractates" ("the Jew of the Talmud should take precedence over the Jew of the Psalms")? These articles are still innovative, sharp, concise and overarching; the style is sometimes lyrical – Levinas rarely wrote in such a strident, argumentative way, blending conviction and stupefaction. The key to what unites Levinas' work – the link between his philosophical writings and his specifically Jewish dimension – may just be found in /Difficile Liberté./

Beyond the obligatory analysis of the title (taken from the last few words of the article "Education and Prayer") this conference aims not only to place the essays in /Difficult Freedom/ in their historical context and within the trajectory of Levinas' thought, but more importantly to examine them afresh – with the wonderment and questions they still elicit today. Diachronic and synchronic analyses of the articles in /Difficle Liberté /will help situate them with respect to Levinas' other works. Issues such as the following could be explored:

Phenomenology, ethics, the Holocaust, Israel, the Talmudic Readings, Levinas' views of science and technology, his relationship to Heidegger, Rozensweig, Bergson, French philosophers and writers, Levinas' relationship to Christianity, Levinas the educator, etc...*

This international conference is an initiative of the Société internationale de Recherches Emmanuel Levinas (SIREL, Paris, http://sirel-levinas.org), and the North American Levinas Society (Purdue, USA, www.levinas-society.org. The conference will host participants from all over the world, with 120 projected presentations.

Priority will be given to students and young researchers. The proceedings will be published (articles selected by the editorial committee). If funding permits, some financial aid may be made available, in particular to young researchers.

SUBMISSION DUE DATES

1. *On or before September 30, 2009:* submission of a 500-word abstract (talks will be 20 minutes, in French or in English)and a short bio-bibliography of the author (s).

2. *On or before November 15, 2009*: notification, based on the decision of the scientific committee.

3. *February 2010*: publication of conference program.

All submissions (preferably as Microsoft Word files) and questions concerning the conference should be sent electronically to: dlib2010[at]gmail.com

CFP: Missed Connections (University of Pennsylvania)

MISSED CONNECTIONS
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

19 FEBRUARY 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Graduate Humanities Forum of the University of Pennsylvania invites submissions for its 10th annual conference: "Missed Connections." The one-day interdisciplinary conference will take place on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at the Penn Humanities Forum in conjunction with its 2009-2010 topic: "Connections."

What might it mean to consider the ways in which connections are foreclosed, desires for union left unsatisfied, communications disrupted? A "missed connection" might be as intimate as a brush with a stranger or as literal as a dropped phone call or departing plane; it might be a forgotten or neglected history or genealogy. "Missed Connections" seeks to foreground failures or absences of connection across disciplines and methodologies. We hope for briefs against perfect transmission, network theory attuned to the gaps in coverage. We are also interested in fields of study that might come into focus for being "unconnected": the rural, the isolated (geographically and historically), the illegible, the strange/estranged.

Please apply to one of the following panels:

"Can You Hear Me Now?" Though a modern-day cliché, “can you hear me now?” speaks to the perennial difficulty of connection and communication, the constant threat of bad connections and miscommunication. Taking the question in its broadest sense, this panel seeks to address the challenges of producing, conveying, receiving, and/or finding meaning in a world of geographical and cultural distances both small and large. What is at stake, besides the message itself, in our attempts to communicate? What and how does failure to communicate signify? Possible topics include static/noise, digital/material texts, legibility/illegibility, networks, strangers/intimates, publicity/anonymity, vernacular/standard forms, the phatic function, and translation.


Corporal Boundaries and Un-bound Bodies This panel explores the making and unmaking of boundaries, and various kinds of crossings between them. We conceive of these boundaries broadly, as the borders of global politics, postcoloniality and travel; as the social categorizations and impermeable membranes shaping bodily materiality; and as affective connections and impasses. Does the spatial imagination generate possible connections that go unnoticed, or highlight problematic connections in zones of conflict?


Coalitions and Their Failures This panel will seek to explore the concept of coalition alongside its productive failures. Under the rubric of coalition we might imagine assemblages, networks, various means of community and connectivity – not only in the political realm but also within academia, in information, and in technological, material and virtual fields. We aim to explore the connections between coalitions and narrative, historiography, anachronisms, and chrono-politics. At the juncture of perceived or real failures, revolutionary ideologies and counter-institutions can arise. What are the affective implications of coalition failures? Can there be a politics of disconnection? Of regret? Of singularity or isolation? How might we use such failures to imagine new alignments?

Please send 250-word paper proposals for one of these panels along with a 1-page CV via email to Rachael Nichols (nichols.rachael at gmail.com) by November 1, 2009. (Notification by December 1, 2009.)

See the full CFP in all of its illustrated glory here: http://humanities.sas.upenn.edu/09-10/ghf/cfp.shtml

CFP: Parallels, Quarrels, Confrontations: Comparatism as a discursive strategy in 17th century writings on music (Sorbonne, Paris)

PARALLELS, QUARRELS, CONFRONTATIONS: COMPARATISM AS A DISCURSIVE STRATEGY IN 17TH CENTURY WRITINGS ON MUSIC
UNIVERSITY PARIS-SORBONNE & ATELIER D'E'TUDES OF THE CENTRE DE MUSIQUE BAROQUE DE VERSAILLES
10 - 12 DECEMBER 2009
CALL FOR PAPERS

The research group Patrimoines et Langages Musicaux of the University Paris-Sorbonne and the Atelier d'études of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles is organizing an international conference on the discursive strategies deployed in 17th century writings on music, which will take place 10-12 December 2009 in Paris and Versailles.

Proposed topics (unexhaustive list)

- issues of comparatism;
- strategies of legitimization and validation: appropriateness of models, establishment of canons and authorities;
- Identification of pairs and related issues;
. spatio-temporal criteria: Ancient and Modern, French and Italian, etc.
. cross-disciplinary criteria: music and architecture, music and mathematics, music and rhetoric, music and painting, etc.
- transformation into other pairs: Ancient / Modern ârt theorists / practitioners, etc.

Scientific committee:
Andre CHARRAK (Université de Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne), Jean DURON (Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles), Theodora Psychoyou (Université de Paris-Sorbonne), Rudolf Rasch (Universiteit Utrecht)

Contact: theodora.psychoyou at paris-sorbonne.fr

Detailed program forthcoming on website: www.plm.paris-sorbonne.fr/theorie1209.shtml

CFP: Luther in Medieval Context (Kalamazoo)

LUTHER IN MEDIEVAL CONTEXT
45th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES
KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN
13-16 MAY 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS

An interdisciplinary special session has been called regarding the early life and works of Martin Luther. While this leaves the session open for many topics, participants are encouraged to focus on the formation of Luther's early thought up to the Reformation. Of particular interest (though not limited to) are Luther's developing views on liturgy, music (including secular), Catholic mysticism, Judaism, Byzantium, a/Authority, law, banking and politics.

Proposals should include an abstract of no more than 250 words and a completed Participant Information Form (required by the Medieval Institute); the form is available at

http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF

Please email your abstract and completed Participant Information Form to Christian McGuire at mcguire at augsburg.edu

Please write in the subject part of the e-mail the following: KZOO 2010 - LUTHER

SUBMISSIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 13 SEPTEMBER 2009

For more information, or to submit a proposal please contact:

K. Christian McGuire
Augsburg College
Music Department
2211 Riverside Avenue
Mpls MN 55454
cell: 651-270-5807
mcguire at augsburg.edu
http://www.augsburg.edu/music/

International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies, Treasurer & Webmaster: http://www.hildegard-society.org/

To find out more about the International Congress on Medieval Studies, visit: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/index.html

CFP: Arvo Pärt and Contemporary Spirituality Conference (Boston University)

ARVO PÄRT AND CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY CONFERENCE
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
26 - 27 MARCH 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS

Conference website: http://www.bu.edu/apcsc/

To celebrate the 75th birthday of Arvo Pärt (born 11 September, 1935), Boston University is hosting a conference entitled ‘Arvo Pärt and Contemporary Spirituality’. Jointly promoted by the School of Theology and the School of Music, with cooperation from CAS/GRS and the Boston University Humanities Foundation, the conference will examine Pärt’s music using and developing cross-disciplinary methodologies drawing on media studies, theological studies and different analytical approaches to music. By working on issues of interpretation it endeavors to bridge the traditional gap between scholars and performers, and it directly addresses the largest group of people who come across Pärt’s music: the audience.

Abstracts of around 300 words are invited on any topic related to Pärt’s music. Papers will be 25 minutes long followed by a 10 minutes Q&A. Please send your abstract by 1 October 2009 to the conference administrator (details below). Please include your name, contact information and institutional affiliation (if any). Abstracts will be reviewed anonymously. Conference sessions will be grouped around themes which might include: Pärt’s life and works, analyzing and defining ‘tintinnabula’, Pärt and contemporary culture, Pärt and contemporary spirituality, Pärt and film music.

Timetable:
1 October 2009 Abstracts due
1 November 2009 Notification of successful abstracts
1 December 2009 Finalization of conference program
1 March 2010 Circulation of papers by attendees

Program Committee
Andrew Shenton, Chair (Boston University)
Sander van Maas (University of Amsterdam)
Robert Sholl (Thames Valley University, London)
Karen Westerfield Tucker (Boston University School of Theology)
Jeremy Yudkin (Boston University College of Fine Arts / College of Arts and Sciences)

Conference administrator (to whom all questions should be addressed and all abstracts sent): Holly Reed [reedhg at bu.edu]

CFP: Celebrating Jean-Georges Noverre 1727-1810 (New College, Oxford)

12TH OXFORD DANCE SYMPOSIUM
CELEBRATING JEAN-GEORGES NOVERRE 1727-1810: HIS WORLD, AND BEYOND
NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD
16 - 17 APRIL 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS

The 12th Oxford Dance Symposium examines various aspects of the life and works of the French-Swiss choreographer and dance writer Jean-Georges Noverre, his contemporaries and successors, his detractors and his champions. In calling for papers, the organisers are seeking a wide range of papers on all these aspects, particularly on his influence as practised in different centres throughout Europe and beyond.

The bi-centenary of the death of Noverre presents an ideal opportunity to take a closer look at the world in which he lived and worked. Trained in Paris by the great Louis Dupré, Noverre went on to work in the opera houses of Paris, Lyons, Strasburg, Stuttgart, Vienna, Milan, and London, trained such future stars as Gaetan Vestris, Jean Dauberval, and Charles Didelot, and crossed swords with several European choreographers including his former pupils Gardel and Dauberval.

Despite Noverre's claims to be an innovator and reformer in many aspects of dance, a number of the theories that he propounded in his own writings had been anticipated by other authors, but it was he who left a mark on the history of theatrical dance which could not be ignored. By the end of his life, the French press was referring to him as 'the Nestor of our choreographers' and after his death in 1810 a flood of adulatory obituaries paved the way for a fame that has lasted virtually unchallenged until recent times.

Offers of papers (by 30 September 2009) and requests to be included on the conference mailing list should be sent to the College Officers' Secretary, Maggie Davies: maggie.davies at new.ox.ac.uk. The conference is organized by Michael Burden and Jennifer Thorp.

CFE: Noise, Audition, Aurality: Histories of the Sonic World(s) of Europe, 1500-1945 (essays)

NOISE, AUDITION, AURALITY: HISTORIES OF THE SONIC WORLD(S) OF EUROPE, 1500-1945
DEADLINE: 30 NOVEMBER 2009
CALL FOR ESSAYS

Contributions are invited for a proposed collection of essays exploring the soundscapes of Europe from c.1500 to 1945. The collection seeks to open up new areas of interdisciplinary scholarship from a range of fields including (but not limited to) musicology, urban geography, history, literary studies, cultural studies, psychoanalysis, psychology and anthropology, and will build on existing work in acoustic ecology, the sociology of noise and histories and historiographies of noise, audition and aurality. We will favour contributions that deal with historically-informed topics in the following areas (although this is by no means an exclusive list):

. The noise-sound-music nexus
. Urban/rural soundscapes
. Public/private soundscapes
. The acoustic ecology of communities
. Legal histories of noise
. Noise, music and the body
. Listening and the erotic
. Political economies of noise
. Noise, music and landscape
. Theories of hearing and listening
. Historical acousmêtres
. Historiographies of noise, audition and aurality
. Technologies of sound reproduction and their histories

Prospective contributors should send a 250-word abstract and a short biography to Ian Biddle (i.d.biddle at ncl.ac.uk) by no later than November 30 2009. If your contribution is chosen, we will require your finished chapter by 19 April 2010.

If you have any queries please also contact Ian Biddle at the email address above.

CFP: International Machaut Society (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

INTERNATIONAL MACHAUT SOCIETY
45th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES
KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN
13-16 MAY 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS

The International Machaut Society will sponsor three sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in May:

* Contextualizing Machaut
* International Machaut Society, Twenty-five Years: Then and Now (A Roundtable)
* Digital Resources and the Study of Machaut (A Roundtable)

The session titles listed above are meant to be taken in the broadest sense possible. We strongly encourage submissions on any topic relating to the life, works, and times of Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-77), especially those that touch on interdisciplinary issues. Contributions to the roundtables should be in the 10-15 minute range to allow for a variety of speakers and adequate discussion time.

Proposals should include an abstract of no more than 300 words and a completed Participant Information Form (required by the Medieval Institute); the form is available at

http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF

Please email your abstract and completed Participant Information Form to Jennifer Bain: bainj at dal.ca

If you encounter any trouble attaching your completed Participant Information Form to your email, please fax it to the number listed below.

SUBMISSIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 15 SEPTEMBER 2009

For more information, or to submit a proposal via snail-mail or fax, please contact:
Jennifer Bain
Dalhousie University
Department of Music
6101 University Avenue
Halifax, NS B3H 4R2
Canada
tel: (902) 494-2418
fax: (902) 494-2801
e-mail: bainj at dal.ca

To find out more about the International Machaut Society, visit our home page at:
http://www.loyno.edu/~avclark/Machaut/imshome.htm

To find out more about the International Congress on Medieval Studies, visit:
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/index.html

CFP: Conversations in Music Scholarship 2010 (University of Michigan)

CONVERSATIONS IN MUSIC SCHOLARSHIP CONFERENCE 2010
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
5 - 6 FEBRUARY 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS

The Michigan Interdisciplinary Music Society will host its fourth annual Conversations in Music Scholarship conference February 5-6,2010, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The conference will feature a keynote address given by Kofi Agawu (Princeton University), as well as a graduate-student workshop directed by Ramon Satyendra (University of Michigan).

Submission Guidelines for Presentations

Proposals for papers on or combining the topics of music theory, musicology, ethnomusicology, and related fields are welcome. Interdisciplinary music research is particularly encouraged. Applicants need not be enrolled in graduate music programs for consideration. Presentations should last 20 minutes, followed by approximately ten minutes for questions and discussion. Complete proposal submissions should include:

1. An abstract of no more than 500 words. The abstract should not contain the author's name or affiliation. Supplementary materials, (such as musical examples, diagrams, and bibliographies) may accompany the abstract, but should not exceed two additional pages.
2. A cover letter that lists the author's name and email address, the paper title, and any equipment required for the presentation (e.g. piano or keyboard, CD player, projector, etc.).

Submissions must be made electronically, and sent by November 20th,2009. The cover letter should be included in the body of the email,and the abstract (and any supplementary materials) attached to the email in .doc or .pdf format. Before sending, please be certain that all attached files will display and print clearly, and that they are free of any indication of authorship. Send electronic submissions to: conversations2010 [at]umich.edu

Notification

Authors will be notified upon receipt of submission. Notifications of acceptances will be sent via email by December 15th, 2009, at which point selected authors will be asked to confirm acceptance and to submit a condensed abstract, suitable for publication in the program booklet, and brief biographical information for the benefit of the conference moderators. For further information, and details from last year's conference, see
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/conversations2009/home

Upcoming Conference: Setting Agendas - Text-Setting and the Libretto in Contemporary British Music (University of Southampton)

SETTING AGENDAS: TEXT-SETTING AND THE LIBRETTO IN CONTEMPORARY BRITISH MUSIC
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
CHAWTON HOUSE LIBRARY, CHAWTON
18 SEPTEMBER 2009

Speakers include: Richard Baker, Stephen Benson, Michael Finnissy, Lavinia Greenlaw, Michael Zev Gordon, John Habron, Brian Inglis, Irene Morra, Julian Philips

For many modern writers and composers, music and literature make an ungainly combination. Stravinsky notoriously regarded his text-settings as a sin, whilst T.S. Eliot refused to demean himself by working as a librettist for Michael Tippett. Yet recent years have seen British composers enlist a series of high-profile literary collaborators for operatic works, from Ian McEwan and Simon Armitage to Seamus Heaney and Vikram Seth. How might this change the relationship between the libretto and the performed work? What questions does the raise about the way modern operatic music is being listened to and disseminated? What are the pragmatics of interdisciplinary collaboration?

This one-day conference will approach these questions in a variety of ways. A series of poets and composers who have worked together will offer their own perspectives on collaborative projects, academics whose work has focused on the British libretto will trace recent developments in the form, and leading British composers will explore how practical and aesthetic considerations inform their use of the written word. The conference will conclude with a short chamber performance.

A limited amount of delegate places are now available for what promises to be a unique event in a stunning location. The conference fee is £25 and includes full lunch, refreshments, and an evening wine reception. In addition, five postgraduate bursaries are available to subsidise the costs of conference registration and travel. To register or for conference enquires please email Will May (w.may at soton.ac.uk).

For more information about the conference and its location, please see chawtonhouse.org and the conference website http://www.soton.ac.uk/english/news/setting_agendas09.html.

CFP: CIM10 Nature versus Culture (University of Sheffield)

CIM10 NATURE VERSUS CULTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
21 - 24 JULY 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS

The Conferences on Interdisciplinary Musicology promote collaborations between sciences and humanities, between theory and practice, as well as interdisciplinary combinations that are new, unusual, creative, or otherwise especially promising. CIM10 will focus on the relationship between nature and culture in musical behaviour, thinking and sound.

Deadline for abstract submission: 15th of September 2009
E-mail submissions to: CIM10 at sheffield.ac.uk

Further information from: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/cim10/index.html

CFP: RMA Annual Conference 2010 'Boundaries' (IMR, University of London)

ROYAL MUSICAL ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2010: 'BOUNDARIES'
INSTITUTE OF MUSICAL RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
15 - 17 JULY 2010
CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Summary Conference Abstract [full abstract at www.music.sas.ac.uk]: The past 25 years of reflection and renewal within musicology have led relationships between our inherently interdisciplinary subject area and other disciplines to flourish as never before. At the same time, we have begun to challenge the validity of musical categorizations that have long been taken for granted both within academia and in the public at large. So how can we now define the boundaries of our subject? What impact do different ways of conceptualizing and categorizing music have on our understanding of it and on the creative activities of musicians? The aim of the conference is to encourage exploration of the ways in which those working in the diverse areas of musical research understand, challenge and make fluid some of the boundaries within their own disciplinary areas and beyond them. The conference will include the Peter Le Huray Lecture for 2010, to be given by Jim Samson (Royal Holloway), and keynote presentations from Martin Clayton (Open University) and Sara Cohen (University of Liverpool).

Call for proposals:

Proposals of 250 words maximum are invited for the following:

• Papers (20 minutes maximum, with 10 minutes discussion)

• Lecture-recitals and performances /demonstrations (30 minutes maximum, with 15 minutes discussion)

Proposals of 650 words maximum are invited for the following:

• Themed paper sessions of three or four papers (to include a proposal of 300 words maximum outlining the purpose of the themed session, along with brief explanations of each of the individual papers to be included - each paper to be 20 minutes maximum plus ten minutes discussion)

DEADLINE for proposals: 5pm (GMT), Friday 20 November 2009

Results and preliminary programme announced: late December 2009

Please submit by email, in an attachment including your full name and contact details, to the IMR Administrator Mrs Valerie James: music [at] sas.ac.uk. If you are a student, please say so.

Proposals will be judged anonymously. Proposals sent in by students will be given special consideration.

RMA Programme Committee: Rosamund Bartlett (Oxford), Katherine Brown (KCL), Rebecca Herissone (Manchester), John Irving (IMR), Nicholas McKay (Sussex)

CFP: After the Magic Flute (UCAL, Berkeley)

AFTER THE MAGIC FLUTE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
5 - 6 MARCH 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS

Call for Papers (abstract deadline: September 1, 2009)

As Tamino stands before the three temple doors in Act I of The Magic Flute, he is about to embark on a humbling complication of the good-evil alignments he (and we) had previously assigned to the Queen of the Night and Sarastro. Interpretive work on Mozart’s enduringly perplexing Singspiel is currently at a similar threshold. Recent scholarship has shifted away from the Masonic and Enlightenment-allegory readings of past decades in favor of increasingly decentralized readings that consider the work’s implications with respect to race, gender, voice, and agency. In addition, new historical information has emerged regarding the immediate context of The Magic Flute within the Viennese theatrical tradition; a new edition of the autograph score is about to be published; and adventurous (often activist) productions set everywhere from South Africa, to a Berlin subway station, to the trenches of World War I have attracted the collaboration of artists as varied as William Kentridge, Julie Taymor, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, and Kenneth Branagh.

The goal of this interdisciplinary conference is to take the measure of these new developments in the history and historiography of The Magic Flute, with the “after” of the conference’s title referring not exclusively to inquiries regarding adaptation or reception, but rather signaling a critical reevaluation of the persistent urge to “unlock” The Magic Flute with a single, symbolic key. The conference committee welcomes proposals from scholars interested in examining The Magic Flute from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology, film and media studies, performance studies, cultural and social history, literary and art history, and reception studies. Featured speakers will include Wye J. Allanbrook (Emerita, Musicology, University of California, Berkeley) and Jane Brown (Germanics and Comparative Literature, University of Washington).

Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words by September 1, 2009 to conference organizer Adeline Mueller (aomueller at berkeley.edu). Notification of acceptance will be sent via email on October 1.

Adeline Mueller
Department of Music
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1200
aomueller at berkeley.edu

Goldsmiths Thursday Club (Goldsmiths, University of London)

GOLDSMITHS THURSDAY CLUB

OPEN CALL FOR PROJECTS & PROPOSALS

2009 - 2010 SEASON

DEADLINE: 29 JULY 2009

The Thursday Club is an open forum discussion group for anyone interested in the theories and practices of cross-disciplinarity, interactivity, technologies and philosophies of the state-of-the-art in today’s (and tomorrow’s) cultural landscape(s). The Club is supported by the Goldsmiths Digital Studios (GDS) and the Goldsmiths Graduate School.

Originally set up in October 2005 by GDS as a more informal setting for research discussions, it has grown to include over 200 members: artists, technologists, scientists – in fact, a growing diversity of people from different communities worldwide, that are connected via a mailing list and online forum.

Most importantly, there are regular meetings in ‘real’ space at the Ben Pimlott site of Goldsmiths, University of London. Anyone can attend these events. By keeping these meetings free, informal and open to all, we provide a platform for diverse and open ended discourse, for people who perhaps would not have the opportunity to discuss ideas outside of their chosen discipline.

The Thursday Club brings together people from diverse fields and degrees of expertise, aiming to initiate discussion and debates among postgraduate students, researchers, academics, artists, theorists, and other cultural practitioners.

Since it focuses on interdisciplinary practices, the Club is interested to experiment with innovative formats of presentation that are appropriate to the nature of the subject. We particularly welcome the proposal of round table discussions, panels, screenings, ‘hearings’, live gigs and performance lectures. We are also interested to platform experimental work-in-progress of both practical and theoretical nature.

Submission Materials

1. A Title and 300 word abstract of your proposal

2. A 1,000 word proposal that will substantiate your abstract as well as include information regarding issues of methodologies and format of presentation; also, this should explain why you think that the Thursday Club is an appropriate forum for the presentation of your work.

2. A 200 word biog

3. Your contact details: name, address, email, telephone number

4. Any relevant links to your work

5. A jpg of your work (if relevant)

Please send any submissions by email to Prof. Janis Jefferies

(j.jefferies@gold.ac.uk) and Patrick Tresset (ma701pt@gold.ac.uk) writing

‘Thursday Club Submission’ as a Subject.

The deadline for the 1st submission of proposals is 10AM, 29th July 2009.

The submissions will be reviewed by the Thursday Club Board and you will hear by the end of August 09.

THURSDAY CLUB BOARD

Dr. Tim Blackwell

Lecturer in Computing, Goldsmiths; co-Head, Live Algorithms for Music Network.

Maria Chatzichristodoulou [aka Maria X]

Lecturer in Theatre and Performance - School of Arts and New Media - University of Hull @ Scarborough; Cultural Practitioner.

Kelli Dipple

Webcasting Curator, Tate.

Prof. Janis Jefferies, Thursday Club Convener

Professor of Visual Arts, Department of Computing, Goldsmiths; Co-director

Goldsmiths Digital Studios; Director Constance Howard Resource and

Research Centre in Textiles; Curator; Artist.

Alex McLean

PhD Candidate Goldsmiths Digital Studios; Sound artist.

Myrto Karanika

MFA Goldsmiths Digital Studios.

Dr. Sarah Kember

Reader in New Technologies of Communication, Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths; Writer.

Nanda Khaorapapong

MFA Goldsmiths Digital Studios.

Prof. Carrie Paechter

Professor of Educational Studies, Goldsmiths; Dean of Goldsmiths Graduate School.

Stanza

Artist

Patrick Tresset

PhD Candidate Goldsmiths Digital Studios; Artist.

Prof. John Wood

Professor in Design, Goldsmiths.

Matthew Fuller

Reader, Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths; Writer.

Phd Studentship: Tangible, Embedded, and Whole Body Music Computing (Open University)

PHD STUDENTSHIP: TANGIBLE, EMBEDDED AND WHOLE BODY MUSIC COMPUTING

OPEN UNIVERSITY

DEADLINE: 21 JULY 2009

A fully funded 3 year PhD studentship in Music Computing is available at the Open University to develop and study new technologies, and new kinds of interaction, to support Music Composition, Performance and Education, with particular reference to Tangible, Embedded, and Whole Body Music Computing. The project will use motion capture and vibrotactile devices to investigate how visual and haptic feedback can be used to help musical beginners develop musical skills, while helping experienced musicians to gain new insights. The initial focus will be on rhythm. Background information to the project can be found at http://www.esenseproject.org/ and

http://musiccomp2008.open.ac.uk/

Applicants should have, or expect to gain, a BSc (1st or 2.1 class) or preferably MSc in computing or other related discipline. Formal musical training is not required, but applicants should have musical skills and experience of playing an instrument. The research is interdisciplinary and experience or interest in any of the following areas would be advantageous: programming for pervasive, tangible or music computing, hardware prototyping, interaction design, and user studies.

We encourage you to informally discuss your interest with Dr Simon Holland (s.holland@open.ac.uk). Applications should contain an application form, a CV and a two-page research proposal outlining how you would tackle this project. Closing date for applications is 21st July 2009. The studentship will commence in October 2009.

For detailed information and to apply email s.a.parsons@open.ac.uk or telephone 01908

653280. Quote reference "Interdisciplinary PhD Studentships in Music"

Further details of music-related research at the OU can be found at

http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/music/research/

PhD Studentships: Music Related Research (Open University)

INTERDISCIPLINARY PHD STUDENTSHIPS IN MUSIC

OPEN UNIVERSITY (MILTON KEYNES)

DEADLINE: 21 JULY 2009

The Open University offers up to two full-time, 3 year PhD studentships (to start 1 October 2009)

Music-related research at the OU encompasses a wide range of approaches (including historical, social, empirical and technological methods) with a distinctive emphasis on innovation and interdisciplinary research. We welcome applications for PhD studentships in any of our areas of strength, which include

* Social and cultural theory and analysis (including ethnomusicology,sociology, social psychology, human geography)

* Historical study (including documentary and archival research)

* Empirical investigation of performance

* Music computing (including Music Computing and Pervasive Interaction; the design and evaluation of new tools for performance, composition, analysis &education)

* Musical acoustics

* Music education and pedagogy

Projects which will benefit from supervision across traditional disciplinary boundaries (e.g. ethnomusicology and psychology, acoustics and historical musicology, or music computing or sociology) are particularly encouraged. Also encouraged are proposals with links to one of our existing research groups or collaborative projects (for details of these, and of our research facilities, go to the web address below).

Potential candidates are urged to make contact as soon as possible, in order to discuss and develop a project with support from potential supervisors prior to submission. Informal enquiries are encouraged to Prof. Martin Clayton, Director of Music Research (m.r.l.clayton@open.ac.uk)

For detailed information and to apply email s.a.parsons@open.ac.uk or telephone 01908 653280.

Further details of music-related research at the OU can be found at http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/music/research/

Closing date: 21 July 2009

Equal Opportunity is University Policy

Fellowship: Adrienne Fried Block Fellowship (Society for American Music)

FELLOWSHIP: ADRIENNE FRIED BLOCK

SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN MUSIC

DEADLINE: 15 NOVEMBER 2009

This fellowship, endowed in honor of Adrienne Fried Block, shall be given to support scholarly research leading to publication on topics that illuminate musical life in large urban communities. Preference shall be given to projects that focus on the interconnections among the groups and organizations present in these metropolitan settings and their participation in the wide range of genres that inform the musical life and culture of their cities.

Application Guidelines:

1. Applicants will provide a narrative of no more than five pages that describes the scope of the project and the need for funding.

2. This award is limited to members of the Society for American Music in good standing.

3. No more than one award will be offered in each cycle. The amount of the award each cycle will vary depending on the interest generated by its endowment.

Applicants should include a full mailing address, phone number, and email address (where an acknowledgement will be sent). Applications should be emailed to the committee chair, John Graziano, at jgraziano [at]gc.cuny.edu.

Entry Deadline: November 15, 2009

Members of the Committee:
John Graziano, chair; John Koegel, Karen Ahlquist