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Music, Nation and Region in the Iberian Peninsula: (Re)Sounding History, Identity and Heritage

Posted: October 24th, 2016 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Music, Nation and Region in the Iberian Peninsula: (Re)Sounding History, Identity and Heritage

University of Cambridge – 22–23 June 2017

Keynote Speakers

Professor Salwa el-Shawan Castelo-Branco
Professor Francisco Cruces Villalobos

The Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge is proud to host the symposium ‘Music, Nation and Region in the Iberian Peninsula: (Re)Sounding History, Identity and Heritage’. The symposium aims to put into dialogue scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds, providing a context for the development of cutting-edge research in the study of music in the Iberian Peninsula, and the islands of Portugal and Spain.

Call for Papers

In the twenty-first century, scholarly debate regarding national vis-à-vis regional identities in the Iberian Peninsula has returned centre stage. Despite the pressures of globalisation that many believed would phase out the importance of the nation state and national belonging, the display of territorial identities has become more prominent across Europe. Music plays a powerful role in nationalism, functioning as a tool for state-level cultural policy and displays of national patrimony, as well as a political vehicle for the negotiation of national narratives. The historical legacy and contemporary resurgence of nationalisms and regionalisms in the Iberian Peninsula (including the islands of Portugal and Spain) has influenced the ways in which music is politicised and harnessed as a symbol of identity, collective memory and nostalgia. Moreover, the recent impact of international heritage policy, particularly through UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, has strengthened the cultural and political significance of music especially at an institutional level bringing into question the ways in which musical ownership and value are negotiated. Finally, increased immigration in the Iberian Peninsula has diversified musical practice complicating the relationship between music and nation in increasingly multicultural societies.

The committee welcomes papers that address the symposium’s themes from a historical or a contemporary, ethnographic perspective. Submissions are invited that challenge or revisit established paradigms in Iberian music studies, addressing the following or related areas:

  • Rethinking music and nationalism in the Iberian Peninsula both past and present
  • Music and state-level cultural policy
  • Music and regionalism
  • Contesting the state: music as a political weapon
  • Music and UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity: safeguarding processes, musical ownership, politics
  • Collective memory and nostalgia in musical practice and discourse
  • Music on and across border regions
  • Music, diaspora and immigration in national/regional contexts

Presentations will be in the form of independent papers (20 minutes + 10-minute discussion) and potential speakers should submit a 300-word abstract plus a short biography to [email protected]. It is hoped that there will be an edited publication of selected papers from the symposium. For more information, please see the symposium website: https://iberianmusic2017blog.wordpress.com.

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS: 12th January 2017 (24:00 GMT)

(Notification of acceptance will be by the end of February 2017)