Programme

The conference programme. Updated 29.4.2025.
All times are UTC+3/EEST



Abstracts

You can download the pdf file with abstracts and bios here. 

Conference venues

Language Center (Festive Hall, sh205 and sh206), University of Helsinki
Fabianinkatu 26, 00170 Helsinki

Topelia c120: 
Musicology Lecture Hall (C120), University of Helsinki
Topelia Building (Unioninkatu 38), gate C II

Please see map for more information about venues and accessibility:
 

 

Wednesday, 14 May 2025
8:45-9.15  Language Center: Festive Hall  Registration
9.15-9:30 Language Center: Festive Hall Opening words
9:30-10:30  Language Center: Festive Hall

Keynote 

Patricia Hill Collins:

“Keeping the Beat: Soundscapes of Black Activism”

Chair: Jasmine Kelekay 

10:30-10:45 Short Break 
10.45-12.15 Parallel sessions 1-4
Language Center: Festive Hall

Session 1: Activism & pedagogy

Chair:  Anna Ramstedt

Jenna Ristilä: A Subtle Activism: Calling for humaneness in classical concert culture

Pushpa Palanchoke: Women as educative agents and public pedagogues: Pathways toward gender-inclusive heritage activism in music and music education in Nepal

Paula Șandor: IncluMusic. Increasing Skills for Building More Inclusive Conservatories

Language Center: sh205

Session 2: Feminist practices 

Chair: Nina Öhman 

Siboné Oroza: Entrepreneurship as Social Activism: Cholita Music and Fashion Markets against Racism, Sexism, and Poverty

Tianyu Jiang: Practicing Feminism in Shanghai’s Electronic Music Scene: Strategies and Challenges

Language Center: sh206

Session 3: Language & discourse

Chair: Wilhelm Kvist 

Anna Mach: Song translation as a tool of social protest: the case of “Bella Ciao” / “Tortury ciało”

Allison Rollins: Singing a "Butchered Tongue": The Irish Language and Hozier's Unreal Unearth.

Johan Franzon: Translating Baraye. How was it done and where does it go?

Topelia: C120

Session 4: Resilience & Resistance I

Chair: Inka Rantakallio 

Sami Alanne: Music Building Resilience for Trauma Victims and Refugees

Andrea Dankić & Nicola McAteer: Re-imagining storytelling as a methodology for music scholar-activism

Marju Raju and Brigitta Davidjants: Performativity in musical activism: the case study of Rhythms of Resistance in Tallinn Pride

12.15-13.15 Lunch
13.15-15.15 Parallel sessions 5-8
Language Center: Festive Hall

Session 5: Stage works (presentations ONLINE)

Chair: Jenna Ristilä 

Zhu Tianshuo: An Analysis of the Phenomenon of “Female Awakening” in Xuzhou Liuqin Opera Scripts after 1949

Maria Grajdian: Embracing the Youth, Healing the Future: Takarazuka Revue’s Strategic Activism

Language Center: sh205 Session 6 (empty)
Language Center: sh206

Session 7: Panel: Music and Cultural Appropriation

Chair: Juha Torvinen 

Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman: Ráidu: Challenging Power Dynamics Through an Intercultural Artistic Collaboration. Co-author Jamie Belmonte 

Reetta Näätänen: Social Responsibilities in Cross-Cultural Music Performance

Marika Kivinen: African American Spirituals as Forgotten/Erased Parts of Classical Concert Music: The Ethics of Challenging White Normatvity in the Finnish Musical Context

Helen Metsä: Exoticist stereotypes in composer Sulho Ranta’s music and writing

Juha Torvinen: Types of exoticism in Erik Bergman’s music

Pirita Näkkäläjärvi: What are possible motives for cultural appropriation of Sámi yoiking in Finnish music? 

Topelia: C120

Session 8: Intersectional methodologies

Chair: Alexandra d'Urso 

Lisa Gaupp: Critiques and Disruptions of Power in Music

Shanti Suki Osman: Intersectional Epistemologies(WT)

Francesca Maria Villani: Sound as Borderland: Identity and Resistance in Women's Contemporary Music.

Emmi Kujanpää: Becoming a goddess in music video trilogy: applying intersectional feminism in transnational folk singing collaboration in Finland and Bulgaria

15.15-15.45 Coffee break
15.45-17.15 Parallel sessions 9-12
Language Center: Festive Hall

Session 9: Strategies of protest I (presentations ONLINE)

Chair: Sini Mononen 

Winnie W. C. Lai: Archiving Affective Acoustics: Film as Engaged Scholarship with Hong Kong as a Case Study.

Tessa Balser-Schuhmann: Music in Times of Ecological, Political, and Social Change. Sonic and Musical Practices as Transformative Processes in Vienna

Ricardo Alvarez: Brass Bands and Social Movements in Central Chile (2019-2024): Reflections on Activism and Ethnomusicological Methodologies

Language Center: sh205

Session 10: Corporeality & positionality

Chair: Anna Ramstedt 

Barbara Kinga Majewska: Voice based discrimination in contemporary vocal music

Sarah Mengede: Feminism, Solidarity & Shared Positionality in Contemporary Rock Journalism

Charlotte Müller: Women* orchestra conductors and the embodiment of music – performative subversions of a gendered professional practice

Language Center: sh206

Session 11: Groups & Communities

Chair: Siboné Oroza 

Xinjie Chen: Entering Cultural Communities through Musical Practice: Perceiving “Collective Consciousness” in the Fieldwork of Gamelan Gong Kebyar

Luis Alejandro Villanueva: Musical practices and political activism in the re-establishment  of a community way of life. A case study of the Totonac population in Puebla, Mexico

Topelia: C120

Session 12: Decolonial perspectives I

Chair: Andrea Dankič

Daniel Mollenkamp: The Coloniser’s Lens as an Activist’s Frame: Can Post-Colonial Artists Find Authenticity in ‘Anglo-American’ Music Genres?

Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey: Co-Authoring the Past and Future of Afghanistan’s Orchestral Practices

Maria Konoshenko: Songs of grief and protest after 2022:  Communicating the experiences of war and emigration through music

18:30- University of Helsinki’s Reception 
Thursday, 15 May 2025
9-11 Parallel sessions 13-16
Language Center: Festive Hall

Session 13: Feminist solidarities (Presentations Hybird/Online)

Chair: Tuulikki Laes 

Cassandra Gibson & Anna Ramstedt: Prepare them for abuse: how to collectively equip young musicians to navigate the unsafe spaces of classical music culture

Laura Watson: Singing for Abortion Rights: Public Performance and the Pro-Choice-Movement in Ireland

Peng Wu: Telling Bottom Story, Being Questioned, Counterattacking Authority: How Xinjiang Musician Daolang is Mythologized as an Underclass Hero?

Zhang Jieyi: Sonic Orientations: Israeli Composer Chaya Czernowin’s Search for “Homecoming” along the Text of Can Xue’s Homecoming 

 

Language Center: sh205

Session 14: Past & Present

Chair: Nina Öhman 

Marc Brooks: The Lessons of Pink Floyd’s Animals for Popular Music and Animal Studies

Nayive Ananías: La voz de los ’80 (The voice of the ‘80s) by Los Prisioneros: four decades addressing a mobilized Chile

Jifang Sun: Legal Discourses in Opéra-Comqiue, 1762-1814

 

Language Center: sh206

Session 15: Individual artists & musical works

Chair: Samuli Korkalainen 

Kai Arne Hansen: Antiracist Activism in Norwegian Hip Hop: The Case of Hkeem’s Ghettoparasitt

Eva Dieteren: Sounding the Erotic: Millie Jackson’s Music through Feminist New Materialisms

Chase Castle: Battle Hymn of Anita Bryant: Gay Liberation and Musical Activism in the United States

Topelia: C120

Session 16: Soundscapes & sound works

Chair: Riikka Ahokas 

Robert Coleman: Ecological Soundwalks: Balancing Activism and Abstraction through Interdisciplinary Exploration.

Małgorzata Heinrich: Sound, Symbol, and Metaphor: The Environmental, Cultural, Societal, and Political Meanings of Hildegard Westerkamp’s Soundscape Compositions

Susanne Heiter: Eco-activism through multispecies sound art? Expectations and potentials

Spy Dénommé-Welch: Visiting with the Land: A strategy for building sound works 

11-11.30

Coffee break

 

11.30-12.30

Language Center: Festive Hall

Keynote 

Petra Laiti CANCELLED due to force majeure 

New Keynote will be announced soon

Chair: Susanna Välimäki

12.30-13.30

Lunch

 

13.30-14.30

Workshops 1 – 3

 

Language Center: Festive Hall 

Workshop 1: Tuulikki Laes & Taru-Anneli Koivisto: Activating public pedagogy in music performance studies: Transition designs for socio-ecological responsibility and institutional change

 

Language Center: sh205

Workshop 2: Tomi Rantanen: Framing Gender Equality Transition in the Finnish Popular Music Sector

 

Topelia: C120

Workshop 3: Michael McEvoy: Relational Audio-Visual Encounters with Nature:

(Re)Connection and Conversation through Improvisation

14.30-15 Coffee break
15-16

Panel + Q&A: On Freedom & responsibility – the artists' role in a changing world (HYBRID)  (in collaboration with UrbanApa and #StopHatredNow)

Panelists: Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman, Bentality & Reetta Näätänen

Moderator: Renaz Ebrahimi

16-16.15 Short break
16.15-17.45

Parallel sessions 17-20

 

Language Center: Festive Hall 

Session 17: Gender & artistic identity (presentations HYBIRD/ONLINE)

Chair: Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik 

Zu Zhuo: A Futuristic Musical Epic of Gender Transition

Rosie Middleton: Navigating ‘Consent’ and ‘Risk’ for Classically Trained Singers

Dori Howard: Body positive role models and weight loss inspirations: The political intersections of fatness and gender in popular music

Language Center: sh205

Session 18: Sustainability & Pedagogy

Chair: Riikka Ahokas 

Marja-Leena Juntunen: Sustainability-Related Themes in Recent Master's Theses in the Music Teacher Education Program in Finland

Anita Savolainen: Climate anxiety and the effects of music to the emotion regulation and experience of agency from the perspective of young adults

Friederike Köhler: The relevance of music in environmental awareness and advocacy: A qualitative study protocol

Language Center: sh206

Session 19: Communities & Resistance

Chair: Inka Rantakallio 

Elizabeth Falade: A New Queer order: Black Queer musicking & Pleasure Activism

Ruari Paterson-Achenbach: The Scratch Cottage: On Solidarity, Sociality and Musical Anarchy

Susan O’Shea: Creative Agents of Climate Change: Using music to help with the Climate Crisis

Topelia: C120

Session 20: Resilience & Resistance II

Chair: Sini Mononen 

Marianne Brown: Music for all: transformative elements of music projects for women and children fleeing domestic violence.

Celeste Cantor-Stephens: Listening to Borders: Sound and Musicking as Resistance and Solidarity at the Franco-British Border 

Sarah Cooper: Stitching Together Resistance: ‘Spliced Collage’ as a Sonic Method of Transcoded Activism in Bristol Drag

19- Conference dinner
Friday, 16 May 2025
9-11 Parallel sessions 21-24

 

Language Center: Festive Hall 

 

Session 21: Panel: Power, Politics and Activism (HYBRID)

Solidarities between Fado, Jazz, Carnival and Drag Queen performances: Thinking activisms through case studies from Portugal

coordinator: Alix Didier Sarrouy

Beatriz Nunes: “The Door is Open”: the paradox of gender equality in jazz education access

Caio Mourão: “Fado Bicha kills fado, with love”: musical artivism and the relational crisis in Portuguese queer music.

Andrew Snyder: Colombina Clandestina: Intersectional Carnival Activism in Lisbon’s Brazilian Carnival

Marco Freitas: From Madness to Culture: LGBTQIA+ Activism Through Lisbon’s Longest-running Drag Queen Show

 

Language Center: sh205

Session 22: Strategies of protest II

Chair: Mark Katz

Libbie Katsev: What did unity sound like?: The music of the 2020 Minsk courtyard concerts

Helena Marzec-Gołąbis: Between Academia, Activism and Music-Making, the example of Girls and Queers to the Front from Poland

Johann Jacob Van Niekerk: Musical Culture, Transition and Sustainability: An Appalachian Ecomusicological Case Study

 

Language Center: sh206

 

Session 23: Decolonial perspectives II

Chair: Wilhelm Kvist 

Aizhan Sultanova: Artistic process of Kazakhstani woman: first steps and hardships towards decolonisation

Zichen Lin: Musical Trajectories of Resistance: Indigenous Singer-Songwriters and the Environmental Justice Movement in Taiwan's Path to Transitional Justice 

Olutomi Kassim: 'FELA' - An existential prophet ahead of his time: The protest music giant of Africa.

 

Topelia: C120

 

Session 24: Panel: Nordic Noise. Hip-Hop, Culture, and Community in Northern Europe

Chair: Susan Lindholm

Susan Lindholm & Alexandra D’Urso: Re-imagining ‘Swedishness’: Intersectional Feminist Resistance and Reflection on the Work of Swedish rapper Silvana Imam

Andrea Dankić: Navigating Stereotypes, Becoming Credible: Skills, Gender, Race and Nation Among Swedish Hip-Hop Practitioners

Inka Rantakallio: Religion, Vulnerability and White Masculinities: A Case Study of two Finnish Male Rappers

11-11.30 Coffee break

11.30-12.30

Language Center: Festive Hall

Keynote 

Shzr Ee Tan 

In partnership with Bhing Navato and in memory of Rubel Fazli Elahi:

"Walking Together on Uneven Playing Fields: Musical challenges and sounded learnings in collaborative citizen research"

Chair: Kim Ramstedt 

12.30-13.30 Lunch
13.30-15 Parallel sessions 25-28

 

Language Center: Festive Hall 

 

Session 25: Religion, Nationalism & Locality I (presentations ONLINE)

Chair: Kaarina Kilpiö

Sandra Sinsch: Breaking the Nazi legacy: Community music and forensic psychiatry in Germany

Júlia Durand: “Music for MAGA”: music and misinformation in online audiovisual media

Zhang Yifei: Sustainable Development Through Sound: The Role of Western Influences in Chinese Music Culture

 

Language Center: sh205

Session 26: Gendered norms in the music industry

Chair: Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik 

Helen Elizabeth Davies: Seeking solutions to gender related challenges in popular music higher education and the music industry

Maho Harada: Costume for Violinists in Japan – Dual Gender Biases Which Asian Female Musicians Face

 

Language Center: sh206

 

Session 27: Activist methodologies

Chair: Reetta Näätänen 

Oluremi Abati: Music production education, and accessibility to visually impaired producers  

Nina Himmelreich: Gender Inequality in the German Music Industry – an Analysis of the German Charts, Festival Stages, and Record Company Rosters

Grace Goodwin: Spreadsheets as activism

 

Topelia: C120

 

Session 28: Memory, commemoration & protest

Chair: Kim Ramstedt 

Safiyyah Nawaz: Memory Records: designing a citizen-science fuelled archive of musical memories

Maria Bianca Stoicescu: Filling the Silence: The Soundtrack of Solidarity for Ukraine

Isang Emeneka: A cross-cultural analysis of music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs): Comparing the distribution and nature of musical memories across Black and White heritage groups.

15-15.15 Short break
15.15-16.45 Parallel sessions 29-32

 

Language Center: Festive Hall 

 

Session 29: Ethics & Methodology

Chair: Inka Rantakallio

Mark Katz in collaboration with Alim Braxton: When “Do No Harm” Is Impossible: The Ethical Challenges of Collaborating with an Incarcerated Musician

Daniel X Y Fong:  Becoming together-apart: The relational triumphs and failures of activist posthumanist ethnomusicological research

Kim Ramstedt & Jasmine Kelekay: Naming Racism in European Music Research

 

Language Center: sh205

Session 30: Religion, Nationalism & Locality II

Chair: Saijaleena Rantanen 

Pasqualina Eckerström: “We play extreme because our lives are extreme”: Extreme heavy metal music as religious and political transgression in iran and saudi arabia

Margarita Moisejeva: Improvisation in Church Music – a Bold Statement in the Orthodox Tradition.

Ruirui Ye: A Study on Music Sustainability and Urban Culture

 

Language Center: sh206

 

Session 31: Memory & cultural heritage

Siboné Oroza 

Vilma Timonen: Heritage activism as a means for sustainable development in and through music education. Synthesis of two case studies conducted in Mauritius and Nepal.

Seonhwa Lee: A Gender Perspective on 19th-Century German Female Composers

Topelia: C120

Session 32: Instruments & traditions

Chair: Reetta Näätänen 

Spiros Delegos: Decolonisation of Rebetiko and Heterotopia

Benjin Pollock:  Nyckelharpa: Folk Identities, Materiality and the Politics of (Inter)Nationalism in Keyed Fiddle Music

Hwan Hee Kim: Preserving Korean Cultural Identity: Kuk Jin Kim’s Piano Music as a Reflection of Tradition

16.45-17 Short break

17-17.30

Language Center: Festive Hall 

Closing remarks