Asia, Music, History

University of Sheffield

School of East Asian Studies

Roundtable “Asia, Music, History”

8 March 2024

2 pm – 5 pm (GMT)

Funded by the Media, Text & Sound Research Cluster (School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield) 

and the Arts and Humanities Research Council

Organised by Hannah Chang (University of Sheffield) and Amanda Hsieh (Durham University)

This exploratory roundtable convenes six scholars from across musicology, ethnomusicology, and East Asian Studies to reflect on three keywords: Asia, music, and history. Critically and collectively, we seek to identify what we see as key problems and possibilities in the study of the musical and sonic pasts of “Asia” today. Following the transnational – and more recently, the “global” and regional – turn in the humanities in general as well as the rise of (sub-)fields such as global music history and historical ethnomusicology, the speakers gather to think together about questions such as: What are the methodological and/or theoretical potentials of “Asia” as a category? In what ways do the pasts continue to inform – and even haunt – the musical and sonic present of “Asia”? And what might we gain from a relational and dialogic approach to the study of Asian music history?

Speakers:

Yuiko Asaba (Lecturer in Music, SOAS)

Alexander Cannon (Senior Lecturer in Music, University of Birmingham)

Amanda Hsieh (Assistant Professor of Musicology, Durham University)

Andrew Killick (Reader of Ethnomusicology, University of Sheffield)

Peter McMurray (Associate Professor of Music, University of Cambridge)

Martyn Smith (Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Sheffield)

Moderator:

Hannah Hyun Kyong Chang (Lecturer in Korean Studies, University of Sheffield)

Schedule:

2.05 – 2.15 pm: welcome

 2.15 – 3.45 pm: speakers' position statements 

4.00 – 5.00 pm: roundtable discussion 

Physical location / remote participation link:

The Diamond, Workroom 1, University of Sheffield

https://meet.google.com/ppn-dfhn-eoh

(For those participating remotely, please kindly register in advance via: https://forms.gle/iKMViMAoeyuDFFwt6)