MGMC 2021: "Timely Conversations"

The Society for Music Research at the University of Michigan is currently accepting proposals for the annual conference hosted by the Midwest Graduate Music Consortium—a joint venture organized by graduate students from the University of Chicago, the University of Iowa, Northwestern University, and the University of Michigan—to be held online on April 10–11, 2021. MGMC 2021 seeks to showcase “Timely Conversations,” focusing on scholarship and new music produced in response to the varied conversations that have taken place over the past year about racial injustice, inequality, and the effects of a global pandemic on universities, research, and societies—all of which raise questions about accessibility, prejudice, and power dynamics in our work. This year's keynote speaker, Shana L. Redmond, is a public-facing scholar and the author of Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora (NYU 2014) and Everything Man: The Form and Function of Paul Robeson (Duke 2020). In 2019 she contributed the critical liner essay to the vinyl soundtrack release for Jordan Peele’s film Us (Waxwork Records 2019). She is Professor of Musicology, Global Jazz Studies, and African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. It is our hope that the timely conversations we have at MGMC 2021 will stimulate productive conversation among attendees and serve as a tipping point for the future of music scholarship.