Review & Photos
On November 24 and 25, 2023, sixteen speakers presented their current research on music in relation to different types of migration in panels and a roundtable over two days as part of the conference "Music, Migration, Belonging/s in 21st-Century Europe".
After a keynote by sociologist Nadia Kiwan (University of Aberdeen, UK), wherein she unfolded the role of „Fortress Europe“ and political communities in current migration discourse and called for a transnational perspective on issues of migration, ethnomusicologists Evrim Hikmet Öğüt (Mimar Sinan Art University, Istanbul, Turkey), Mojca Piškor (Academy of Music, Zagreb, Croatia) and Talia Bachir-Loopuyt (University of Tours, France) spoke about challenges in researching musical practice in relation to migration in contemporary Europe. Around sixty participants from various disciplines took part over the course of the two days and contributed to a successful academic exchange.
The event concluded with a roundtable with ethnomusicologists Britta Sweers (University of Bern, Switzerland) and Ulrike Präger (University of Louisville, USA), moderated by Conny Gruber (Austrian Academy of Sciences), in which the question of the concept of belonging as well as the ambivalence surrounding "migration" in general was discussed intensively with the audience.
The scientific program was rounded off with a concert on Friday evening at Sargfabrik by the ensemble "Basma and Friends": The Syrian-Austrian singer Basma Jabr presented her current album "Furat".
The conference took place as part of the project "Women Musicians from Syria: Performance, Networks, Belonging/s after Migration" (Austrian Science Fund FWF, V706-G29) in cooperation with the Music and Minorities Center (MMRC) and the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology.
Thanks for additional financial support to the City of Vienna and the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology.