Following the re-formation of the ICTM Study Group on Music & Gender at the ICTM World Conference in Astana Kazakhstan 2015, after a 10-year inactive period the first Study Group Symposium was held in Bern, Switzerland, hosted by the Institute of Musicology of Bern University. Throughout the meeting, the energy of a new start was noticeable and provided a stimulating atmosphere for the reviving of this important forum for gender related research in ethnomusicology.
The institute of folk music research and ethnomusicology was represented by two contributions. Ursula Hemetek in her paper reflected on the role of partners in ethnomusicological fieldwork, critically examining gender inequalities and the unbalance of epistemological representation, as well as addressing her very personal experience in the field. Marko Kölbl, together with Cornelia Gruber (University of Vienna), examined present gender and queer approaches in ethnomusicology, drawing on a survey of four major ethnomusicological journals and suggesting future prospects and possibilities from a queer-feminist perspective (for both abstracts click here).
The program (chair: Anna Hoefnagels) covered a wide range of ethnomusicological work not solely on gender, but on sexuality, gender identities and specifically the intersection to ethnography and provided an insight into the richness of today’s ethnomusicological gender research, that was also reflected upon in a brainstorming session on future directions. Pirkko Moisala gave a keynote lecture on Deleuzian theorizing of musicking women of Nepal and was honored for her dedicated service by Barbara Hampton.
Fruitful exchange of ideas and a lively discourse fostered the revived group – study group activities for the next ICTM world conference 2017, as well as the study group meeting for 2018 are in planning. Once again, many thanks to Britta Sweers and Anja Brunner as local organizers as well as Barbara Hampton as founding and present chair of the study group.
