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Gender and Music: Practices, Performances, Politics
16th-18th March 2016
School of Music, Theatre and Art, Örebro University, Sweden
From challenging the idea that music is an inherently democratic medium, to observing how we should approach music as a political tool, musicians, activists and feminist theorists have done a great deal to change the way people think about music. At the same time, the way in which gender has often been subverted through music has also fuelled discussions about how we understand gender as performative, malleable and diverse.
Nevertheless, gender inequalities in terms of representation in education and the music industries, are remarkably evident. Access to resources, participation in musical activities and the way in which music can reproduce certain stereotypes, also still persist. In addition, the absence of an intersectional focus has tended to obscure different power dynamics when looking at gender in music. This international, interdisciplinary conference, hosted by the School of Music, Theatre and Art at Örebro University, will seek to explore new directions in gender research for thinking about access, production, participation, musicology and music criticism, but also how we can continue to challenge gendered social inequalities through analysing music.