Sympathetic Vibrations: Sound, Communities, Environments
8th Biennial Yale Graduate Music Symposium
March 4-5th, 2022
Yale University, New Haven, CT
Keynote Speaker: Jessica Bissett Perea (UC Davis)
How does music bring people together in community? How do the environments we live in shape our sonic practices? The organizing committee of the 2022 Yale Graduate Music Symposium welcomes abstracts on the topic “Sympathetic Vibrations: Sound, Communities, Environments.” This symposium is built on three pillars: sound as a musical, material, and aural phenomenon; communities that are constructed around specific musical practices, identities, and histories; and environments both physical and intangible. These three pillars are co-constitutive of one another, forming a relationship which we are calling “sympathetic vibrations.” We borrow this term from the field of acoustics to highlight the potential resonances between these three themes and the ways in which they activate each other. This theme also emphasizes the potential for this conference to activate “sympathetic vibrations” across disciplinary and geographic boundaries, as we see this conference as a gathering for collaboration and exchange. We hope that this conference will foster a rich exchange of critical perspectives on the theme by bringing together graduate students representing a variety of intellectual disciplines and backgrounds.
We conceive of this theme quite broadly. Possible topics include, but are not limited to
-
Music in/of marginalized communities
-
Liveness, presence, and mediation
-
Music and Critical Race Theory
-
Communities of teaching/learning music
-
‘Vibing’ as embodied listening or musicking practice
-
Environmental/historical soundscapes
-
Digital environments
-
Music and the Anthropocene
-
Site-specific and virtual performance practices
-
Oral traditions and histories
-
Music as colonizing force, music as protest
-
Afrofuturisms
-
Animal vocalisations
-
Negotiating public and private sound spaces
