Music and Socialism

Overview

Music and Socialism will look at how music and socialism have been articulated at various historical and sociopolitical junctures.

Date

Friday 7-Saturday 8 July 2017

Time

9am-5pm

Venue

Arts Centre, University Park Campus, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD

Accommodation is available at the Orchard Hotel and in various halls at the University of Nottingham.

Cost

The cost for the conference is £35. Registration closes 1 July.

Click here to register

Project Team

Dr Danijela Špirić-Beard (Cardiff University)
Dr Sarah Hibberd (University of Nottingham)
Professor Robert Adlington (University of Huddersfield)
Dr Pauline Fairclough (University of Bristol)
Dr Elaine Kelly (University of Edinburgh)
Professor John Street (University of East Anglia)

Keynote speaker

'Music and Socialism: Past, Present and Future', Eric Drott (University of Texas at Austin)

Is this for you?

Marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution, this conference will examine how music and socialism have been articulated at various historical and sociopolitical junctures, focusing on how composers and musicians have voiced their political engagement since 1917. The rise of Occupy, Podemos, Syriza, Bernie Sanders, and Corbynism for many indicate the emergence of twenty-first century socialism, but despite this renewed interest, the concept continues to receive little attention in musicological discourse.

The aim of this conference is to open up a dialogue between the creative and transformative inroads that socialism has made through music over the last 100 years, and the more adverse appropriation of music and socialist ideology by totalitarian regimes. The conference will generate a more global understanding of socialism as an impulse that resonates beyond the Cold-War polarisation, and across many different cultures, societies and political systems.