Music and Social Movements Symposium 2018, Northumbria University, 30th November 2018

This symposium, funded by the US Embassy and Northumbria University, will bring together academic historians, graduate students, and teachers to examine the role that music played in various oppositional social movements active in the post-World War II period in the United States. This includes (but is not limited to) religious movements, the gay rights movement, labor organizations, and the African-American and Latino activist communities.

Participants will think through how we teach and write about the ways that popular music relates to minority group understanding, political protest, religious identity, and more. In particular, the symposium hopes to promote the work of graduate students and early career academics. It will facilitate this through bursaries to cover travel and accommodation. The day will include a series of academic papers and a ‘Teaching History with Music’ roundtable.

The symposium will conclude with a major public event in Newcastle, involving Bob Stanley, author of Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Modern Pop (2013), long-term contributor to such seminal publications as Melody Maker, The Face, and NME, and founding member of the pop group Saint Etienne. He will be in conversation with Brian Ward, Professor of American Studies at Northumbria and author of Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness and Race Relations (1998) and A&R Pioneers: Architects of American Roots Music on Record (2018).

Registration for the symposium is free – and includes lunch and refreshments – numbers are limited so please move quickly to reserve your place. (The symposium should run from 11.00am to 5.00pm, with the evening event at 7.30pm).