New Article in African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review

The latest African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review contains an article by myself. You can access it here through JSTOR:

Here is the abstract:

Whose Music, Whose Country? Music, Mobilization, and Social Change in North Africa

ABSTRACT Social change began to rapidly emerge in many North African states in 2011 and 2012, and this process continues today. Music has been embedded within this process from the beginning and has been a key feature in street protests and expressing group identity that opposed the status quo at the time. The situation has since become extremely complex as group identities have split and merged, but in the early days of social change in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, music was used by professional and amateur musicians as well as non-musicians for several purposes, namely, to express a more generalized group identity, to capture the moment of the protests, and to propagate information about the situation to a wider Arab diaspora and gain support from them. Conversely, the state also used music at this time as a form of social control by promoting music that was uncritical to marginalize the challenging music.

New Music and Conflict Transformation PhD

A new PhD programme has been started up at Queens University, Belfast. The details are below. Olivier Urbain of the Toda Institute will be guest lecturing there this autumn. Who knows, maybe I'll get to do something there sometime soon!

"Musical Crossings: Music Mediation in Conflict Transformation"

Supervisors:

Professor Fiona Magowan (School of History and Anthropology and ISCTSJ Research Fellow); Professor Pedro Rebelo (Creative Arts, Music)

This project considers the ways in which music mediation has developed as a means of supporting and engaging the experiences of those who have lost relatives or who have been the victims of traumatic events in post-conflict regions. This doctoral research invites applicants to explore how musical practices facilitate new kinds of exchange, dialogue and relationships between communities and individuals who may not otherwise meet. Through analyses of music mediation processes with non-governmental and community-based organisations in Europe or South America, the project considers how music facilitates physical, emotional and psychological change among those who have experienced political conflict and violence.

Extending recent scholarship around the effects of music in conflict resolution, applicants are asked to consider the following questions:

• How do community-facilitated music mediation programmes empower individuals and communities to support and effect interpersonal change?
• How do different musical repertoires shape participants’ memories, narratives and experiences of conflict?
• To what extent do communally-organised musical experiences mediate attitudes and behaviours in everyday socio-political decision-making?
• In what ways is music mediation creating a legacy of conflict transformation in post-conflict regions?

Research on music and peacebuilding has considered how the interpersonal aesthetics of musical practice can enhance dialogue and strengthen relationships by increasing empathy, mutuality and creativity in participation. Further research is needed to understand how post-conflict musical mediation can change victims’ attitudes towards conflict and the specificities of local politics, as musical facilitators seek to empower communities and create sustainable peacebuilding activities among the next generation.

Closing Date for Applications: 27 February 2015

For further information on the PhD project, please contact: Prof. Fiona Magowan (f.magowan@qub.ac.uk). For advice on the application process and eligibity for funding, please contact Susan Templeton (s.templeton@qub.ac.uk). Additional information is available at:

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofHistoryandAnthropology/ProspectiveStudents/PostgraduateFeesandFunding/SchoolPostgraduateFunding/