Owing to the Research, Training and Networking allowance of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Postdoctoral Fellowship, I was able to organize a two-day symposium on music, sounds and the political on behalf of DCU’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and with the help of Asst. Prof. Andreas Rauh, a colleague from the neighboring DCU School of Communications. (Click here to see the symposium CFPs.)

The selected researchers and practitioners across the disciplines presented and discussed their practice-based explorations of contemporary political phenomena that are in one way or another related to music and sounds. Here, the political is broadly defined to include various domains and experiences of life, from class struggle and questions of women’s and minority rights to community engagement, conservation and sustainability projects. The artistic media and formats used to ponder all these topics ranged from experimental and ethnographic filmmaking to field recordings, sonic installations and music making. (Click here to see the full symposium program.)

Given its artistic and activist orientation, the symposium also included an exhibition on the ground floor of DCU Cregan Library (St. Patrick’s Campus) which was launched on Thursday, 21 March 2024, at 4 pm. The exhibition went on until the end of the symposium on Friday, 12 April 2024, 4 pm.

The symposium took place at two venues:

On Day 1, Thursday 11 April 2024: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (RSAI), 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, D02 X338

On Day 2, Friday 12 April 2024: Seamus Heaney Lecture Theatre (G114) on the ground floor of DCU Cregan Library, St. Patrick’s Campus, Drumcondra Rd Upper, Drumcondra, Dublin

For all other information on the symposium, see Symposium Information Booklet.