CFP: Sonic Futures: Performing Identity in the 'Global' City, College of Communication, London

 Deadline: March 15th 2019

The idea for this one-day conference stems from a series of workshops, Sonic Futures: Identity and Sustainability through Music and Performance, supported by London College of Communication (Teaching and Learning Fund) in collaboration with May Project Gardens (Hip Hop Garden). Adopting a mixed-method approach, this pilot project sought to engage students from LCC in a series of workshops that explored the connections between social issues (e.g. social cohesion, participatory and sustainable practices and active citizenry, to name a few), politics and identity formations at the intersections of class, ethnicity, race, gender and the environment. Primarily, this project aimed to instigate critical thinking and reflections on cultural practices and genre through performance in general and Hip Hop music and culture in particular. Gardening is connected to questions of psycho-physical wellbeing, community building and sustainability in the global city. Overall, Hip Hop Critical Pedagogies provided a productive template that helped combine all these different aspects.Considering the nature and the objectives of these activities, the students who participated in the programme decided to actively work towards an event that could reflect on the critical questions raised during the workshops.

The aim of the conference is thus to connect participants, exchange knowledge(s), start dialogues and motivate students to be critical thinkers.

We welcome 15-minute presentations, academic papers, performances, and contributions from a wide variety of disciplines, practice areas and backgrounds, but with a main interest in exploring Hip Hop critical pedagogies along with:

-Diversity, inclusion, social justice

-Gardening and wellbeing in the global city

-Indigenous knowledge(s), science and technology

-Arts, drugs and mental health

-Youth and mental health

-Hip Hop feminisms and Hip Hop and Gender

-Hip Hop, race and class

-Hip Hop and Indigenous knowledges

-Building communities, regeneration and gentrification

-Hip Hop mobilities and diasporas

-Digital identities and social media platforms

Please send a proposal of no more than 200 words and a 50-word bio no later than March 15th 2019 to: c.minestrelli(at)lcc.arts.ac.uk