To mark the 60th anniversary of the Department of Music Sociology (IMS), the international conference “The Archival Turn in Music Sociology” took place from 5 to 7 February 2026 in the mdw’s Fanny Hensel Hall (and online). Organised by Rosa Reitsamer, Rainer Prokop, and Tianyu Jiang, this conference aimed to highlight the significance of archives, gendered music historiographies, and (the politics of) the reconstruction of music histories.

Music in Society is a new master’s degree programme combining social science with artist practice that is unique worldwide and will be launched at the mdw in the 2024/25 winter semester. It was conceived by the Department of Music Sociology.

Rosa Reitsamer has received the Gabriele Possanner State Prize of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research for her work as a preeminent expert in intersectional gender research within the field of music sociology.