Programme

The conference programme. Updated 15.4.2025.


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:
https://www.helsinki.fi/assets/drupal/2023-05/MusAct%2C%20Map.pdf

 

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”

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

Session 1: Activism & pedagogy

Jenna Ristilä: A Subtle Activism: drafting a manual for musicians

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

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

Language Center: sh205

Session 2: Feminist practices 

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

Rebecka Sofia Ahvenniemi: Opera Pop. A Music Album Condemned to Meaning.

Language Center: sh206

Session 3: Language & discourse

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

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

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

Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman: Ráidu: Challenging Power Dynamics Through an Intercultural Artistic Collaboration 

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: “Lou leig-u luu” and a fake Sámi hat: How to identify cultural appropriation of Sámi yoiking in Finnish music

Topelia: C120

Session 8: Intersectional methodologies

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Keynote 

Petra Laiti:

Topic TBA

 

12.30-13.30

Lunch

 

13.30-14.30

Workshops 1 – 3

 

Language Center: Festive Hall 

Workship 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 discussion on arts and activism (in collaboration with UrbanApa and #StopHatredNow)

Panelists: TBA

Chair: Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman

16-16.15 Short break
16.15-17.45

Parallel sessions 17-20

 

Language Center: Festive Hall 

Session 17: Gender & artistic identity

 

Zu Zhuo: A Futuristic Musical Epic of Gender Transition

 

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

Language Center: sh205

Session 18: Sustainability & Pedagogy

 

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

 

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

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:

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

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

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

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

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

 

Topelia: C120

 

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

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

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"

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

 

Language Center: Festive Hall 

 

Session 25: Religion, Nationalism & Locality I

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

 

Language Center: sh205

Session 26: Gendered norms in the music industry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Session 32: Instruments & traditions

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 Closing remarks