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The Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, in collaboration with the Royal Musical Association ‘Music of Eastern Europe and Eurasia’ Study Group are organising a conference on the theme of “Women in Music” (23-25 September 2026).
The role played by women in various aspects of musical life has gained increasing attention since the emergence of feminist approaches to musicology in the 1980s, thanks to the application of feminist theories in various humanistic disciplines slightly earlier, as well a broader revisionist turn in Music Studies at the time, usually referred to as New Musicology. In the course of the past four decades significant efforts have been made to bring to the fore and explore, on the one hand significant aspects of the hitherto undervalued presence and contribution of women in (among others) musical creation, performance, music consumption, music scholarship, music education, and, on the other hand, to address the necessity for revisionist approaches to musicological scholarship. Nevertheless, the field of musicology is still a long way from achieving balanced accounts of gender participation in music making. At the same time, recent scholarship has increasingly foregrounded gender as a relational, historically contingent, and culturally situated category, inviting critical reflection on the very terms through which ‘women in music’ have been conceptualised and studied.
The conference aims to help remedy this gender imbalance in Music Studies by shedding additional light on women’s involvement in various aspects of musical life since the early 20th century. Specifically, it aims to focus on a wide variety of historical and cultural contexts, with an emphasis on the geographical areas of Eastern Europe and Eurasia, while at the same time covering a wide spectrum of sub-disciplinary areas in the field of Music Studies.
The conference places particular emphasis on women’s musical activities in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, with a primary focus on the period from 1900 onwards. Submissions engaging with these geographical and temporal frameworks will be prioritised.
The conference official language is English.
Organising Committee
Eleni Kallimopoulou, Magdalini Kalopana, Katerina Levidou, Nick Poulakis, Angeliki Triantafyllaki, Markos Tsetsos
Scientific Committee
Pauline Fairclough, Eleni Kallimopoulou, Magdalini Kalopana, Elaine Kelly, Katerina Levidou, Ivana Medić, Nick Poulakis, Angeliki Triantafyllaki, Markos Tsetsos
Location
Olympia City Music Theatre “Maria Callas”, 59 Akadimias str. Athens 10679
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