Northeast Chapter of the Society for
Ethnomusicology

Call for Papers
Harvard Graduate Music Conference:

"Un-Music"
Keynote Address: Dr. Jonathan Sterne (McGill University)

The Harvard Graduate Music Forum announces its sixth graduate student conference, "Un-Music," taking place on March 7, 2009. We invite graduate students from all disciplines to interpret this theme broadly and creatively. Historical, ethnographical, analytical, and compositional approaches are welcome. Possible topics may include:

- The boundaries between music and non music
- Amusicality
- Musical censorship (what it means to 'un-music' a place)
- Non-musical aspects or intentions of musical performance (dance, ritual, healing, etc)
- The (un)analyzability of music
- Noise, sound, voice, or silence
- Ontologies of music
- Criticism/Bad music

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted by Monday, January 12,
2009 to gmfconference@gmail.com. Since proposals will be reviewed anonymously, we ask that your abstract not contain your name or academic affiliation.  Please attach your abstract as a word document to your email.  Include your name and contact information within the body of your email. Speakers will be notified by February 1, 2009.

We are very happy to announce that this year's keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Jonathan Sterne, Professor of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University. Professor Sterne is a pioneering scholar in the emerging discipline of Sound Studies. His landmark 2003 study The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction rewrites the history of sound technologies such as the telephone, phonograph and radio, and argues for the centrality of sound to our understandings of modernity. He is currently working on his next book project, tentatively titled MP3: The Meaning of a Format.  The title of Dr. Sterne's presentation will be "Is Music A Thing?"

We look forward to reading your submissions!

Ryan Raul Bañagale and Michael Heller
Program Committee co-chairs