Extended deadline: Diffractions: An International Symposium on Barad and Music Studies
Mathew Klotz
Dear colleagues,
We have extended the deadline for Diffractions: An International Symposium on Barad and Music Studies to Friday, 10 May, 2024. The call for papers is below. Feel free to share with anyone you think might be interested.
Warmest wishes,
Mat
Diffractions: An International Symposium on Barad and Music Studies
Thursday 26 to Saturday 28 September 2024
Creative Arts Research Institute, Griffith University, and online
Extended proposal deadline: Friday, 10 May, 2024
Keynote speaker: Judy Lochhead, Stony Brook University
We warmly invite submissions for ‘Diffractions’, a forthcoming international symposium on intra-actions between music studies and the theoretical, philosophical, and political work of Karen Barad. We have extended the deadline to Friday, 10 May, 2024.
Barad’s writings have been illustrative in reckoning with the social and political contours of science—especially physics—and the concrete aspects of feminist and queer studies. Their radical ontology repeatedly emphasises the mutually constitutive articulation of material and discursive elements, which we might take up as a means for interrogating the remnants of disjuncture between the hermeneutic and physical qualities in the diverse studies and practices of music. Their concept of diffraction, in particular—borrowed from physics but put to work as a powerful critical tool—offers possible ways of rethinking what we understand to be the object of investigation in music studies, invites approaches to how we go about our inquiry, and challenges us to think about the entangled irreducibility of ontology, epistemology, and ethics.
This event is not only first symposium of its kind but also the first collective academic engagement of any kind to give sustained and much overdue attention to the many new horizons that Barad’s work might make doable and hearable in music studies and practices. Extending this, we intend to invite contributors to further develop their work for a future edited volume.
The symposium will take place in person at the Creative Arts Research Institute, Griffith University, Meanjin (Brisbane), Australia, and online.
We invite proposals from music researchers and music practitioners for traditional paper presentations and alternative presentation formats (e.g. performance-based) that think with any of Barad’s work. We are interested in proposals from musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory and analysis, music education, ecomusicology, sound studies, artistic research, and beyond. We especially welcome engagement with Barad’s more recent work. Presentations will be 20 minutes long, followed by 15 minutes for discussion. We are also open to proposals for alternative format special sessions or roundtables. Please indicate a theme and list of contributors.
Please email your 250-word submission, including whether you wish to attend in person or online, and 100-word bio to Mathew Klotz (m.k...@griffith.edu.au) and Chris Stover (c.st...@griffith.edu.au) by Friday, 10 May, 2024. We will communicate decisions by Friday 17 May. Any questions can be directed to either Mathew or Chris.
Dr Mathew Klotz (they/them)
Adjunct Research Fellow
Creative Arts Research Institute Griffith University | South Bank Campus
Turrbal and Yuggera Country
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1655-9426
Recent publications:
Klotz, M. (2023). The plane of cicadas: On the possibility of making kin through musicking. Journal for Artistic Research, 30.
Klotz, M. (2023). On 'Moving Kinship' at Queer Britain. LGBTQ+ Music Study Group.
Klotz, M. (2021). Considering (queer) musicking through autoethnography. MUSICultures, 48, 9–28.
I acknowledge the Yugarabul, Yuggera, Jagera, Turrbal, Yugambeh and Kombumerri peoples as the owners and custodians of the lands on which Griffith University is situated, lands that have always been home to music-making and knowledge-sharing. I pay my respects to Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues at the university and in our communities.