CfA: Conference "Music/Sound Through the Lens of Trauma: Methodology, Theory and History", Utrecht
Music/Sound Through the Lens of Trauma: Methodology, Theory and History
Utrecht University, 7-8 July 2022
Deadline: 03. April 2022
This conference seeks to explore the methodological, theoretical and historical questions concerning the intersection between music, sound and trauma. In the 1990s, Cathy Caruth drew attention to the analytical and interpretative potential of Freud’s trauma theories for cultural studies and ever since this angle has flourished. In the last decade, musicologists and sound studies scholars have joined the choir as well, interrogating the intersection between music/sound and trauma both from a historical perspective as well as a present-day one. While Freud’s psycho-analytical theories are still regularly invoked, the field of approaches has widened by taking recourse to more recent theories from psychology and psychiatry, cultural sociology, anthropology, and so on, as well as by historicising the medical notion of trauma – notably, trauma was not conceptualised as a psychological phenomenon until the 1870s. As such, research on the intersection between music/sound and trauma has interacted with various other fields, such as (not exhaustively) sound studies, post-colonial studies, disability studies, gender studies, diaspora studies, the history of medicine. In this conference, we aim to examine the opportunities and responsibilities offered by examining sonic and musical phenomena, practices, and discourses in past and present through the lens of trauma.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
(historical) definitions of trauma in relation to music/sound
music/sound as alleviating trauma in past and present
music/sound as causing or exacerbating trauma in past and present
music/sound and violence in past and present
music/sound in (historical) medical and therapeutic discourse and practice
the language/vocabulary/theory used to interpret or describe what we know as ‘trauma’ (especially in periods, regions, or communities where diagnostic trauma language is not developed or used)
scholarly and ethical responsibility in discussing music/sound in relation to trauma
The programme committee welcomes proposals for individual papers (20 minutes). The conference language is English. Please send an abstract (200-250 words) and a short biographical note (ca. 100 words) as Word documents along with your name, affiliation, and AV requirements to Annelies Andries (Utrecht University) and Marie Louise Herzfeld-Schild (Utrecht University) at utrechtmusicsoundtraum[at]agmail[dot]com.
The deadline for submissions is 3 April 2022. Acceptance notifications will be sent until the end of April 2022.
We plan to hold the conference on site in Utrecht, corona regulations permitted. However, there will be an option for online/hybrid participation. Attending the conference will be free of charge with lunch included. Information about travel to and accommodation in Utrecht will be available on the website in due time, see https://utrechtmusicsoundtrauma.wordpress.com/
Dr. Marie Louise Herzfeld-Schild
Assistant Professor of Musicology | Department of Media and Culture Studies | Utrecht University