International Conference
THE ARCHIVAL TURN IN MUSIC SOCIOLOGY
5–7 February 2026
mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
Fanny Hensel-Hall | mdw Campus Map
& online | Zoom link TBA
Keynote Speakers
Kate Eichhorn
The New School, USA
Uchenna Ngwe
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, UK
Royal Academy of Music, UK
Nick Prior
University of Edinburgh, UK
Organisers
Tianyu Jiang, Rainer Prokop, Rosa Reitsamer
Department of Music Sociology
mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
The history of music sociology and established music historiographies are frequently marked by androcentric narratives and reconstructions of the past. In the course of the 60th anniversary of the Department of Music Sociology in 2025, we propose with this conference the archival turn in music sociology in order to acknowledge the contributions of female, feminist, queer and post-/decolonial scholars, musicians, activists, and archivists to the history of music sociology and to critically engage with the historiographies of music’s past. Physical and digital archives play an important role in these processes. They are sites and practices of knowledge formation, cultural production, and activism and provide means to engage with the past to understand the construction of temporalities, histories, and heritage and to question the canon. Against this background, this conference addresses the following key areas:
› Archives, Ethics, Care
› Lived Experiences and Feminist Archives
› Female Music Histories
› Queering the Archive
› Grassroots Archiving
› Decolonial Approaches
› Materialities and Cultural Labour
› Methodologies
› Digitalisation and Platforms
Conference Programme › DOWNLOAD
Book of Abstracts › COMING SOON
Call for Papers › DOWNLOAD
Conference Co-funding
Mariann Steegmann Foundation
No Conference Fee
Conference participation is free of charge.
Questions?
Please write to › musiksoziologie@mdw.ac.at
Facebook Event
THE ARCHIVAL TURN IN MUSIC SOCIOLOGY – International Conference
