Music and Social Movements: A one-day symposium at Northumbria University

30 November 2018

This symposium, funded by the US Embassy and Northumbria University, will bring together academic historians, graduate students, and teachers to examine the role that music played in various oppositional social movements that were active in the post-World War II period in the United States.

Participants will think through how we teach and write about the ways that popular music relates to minority group understanding, political protest, religious identity, and more. Topics for discussion will include Live Aid, feminism, oral history, protest, civil rights, and Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America.’ The event will include an interactive workshop at which participants will discuss how we interrogate and use documents related to music.

The symposium will conclude with a major public event in Newcastle, involving Bob Stanley, author of Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Modern Pop (2013), long-term contributor to such seminal publications as Melody Maker, The Face, and NME, and founding member of the pop group Saint Etienne. He will be in conversation with Brian Ward, Professor of American Studies at Northumbria and author of Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness and Race Relations (1998) and A&R Pioneers: Architects of American Roots Music on Record (2018).

Please register here before November 7: https://store.northumbria.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/arts-design-social-sciences/conferences/music-and-social-movements-symposium-at-northumbria-university-2018

Please contact Joe Street ([email protected]) for more information and to discuss bursaries. Please note that postgraduate students will be prioritized for receipt of this money. Registration for the symposium is free – and will include lunch and refreshments – but numbers are limited, so please move quickly!