Repatriating/Rematriating sounds: a (digital) challenge for XXI Century Sound Archives
CALL FOR PAPERS
International seminar
Intercultural Institute for Comparative Music Studies (IISMC)
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, June 26-28, 2024
Submission deadline: February 15, 2024
Repatriating/Rematriating sounds: a (digital) challenge for XXI Century Sound Archives
The concepts of repatriation/rematriation are crucial for contemporary sound and audiovisual
archives that preserve music of oral tradition. Indeed, these concepts are at the core of important
issues in the contemporary debate of the ethnomusicological discipline, such as the processes of
decolonization, the development of a participatory, shared, dialogic ethnomusicology, the
accessibility of sources especially through new technologies, the historical dimension of research
on music of oral tradition, a profound revision of metadata and methods used for cataloguing
thanks also to artificial intelligence, the educational perspective.
Several scholars have written on this topic in recent years. Suffice it to mention here the names of
Anthony Seeger, Janet Topp Fargion, Diane Thram, Aaron Fox and the researchers who
contributed to the thirty-eight chapter of The Oxford Handbook of Music Repatriation edited by
Frank Gunderson, Robert Lancefield and Bret Woods. In Italy, the topic is currently being
researched by a National Research Project funded by the Ministry of University and Research
coordinated by Maurizio Agamennone (University of Florence) and involving three other
universities (Pavia, Rome "La Sapienza," Rome "Tor Vergata"). The seminar that we intend to
organize in Venice aims to provide an overview of the most up-to-date theories and research
methodologies on the topic, but also, and especially, to present some significant good practices
that, in the perspective of a public ethnomusicology, are being implemented today.
Each of the three sessions of the seminar will be opened by keynote lectures delivered by Dr.
Robin R.R. Gray (University of Toronto Mississauga), Dr. Lars-Christian Koch (Humboldt Stiftung),
and Dr. Janet Topp Fargion (British Library).
Organizing and Scientific Committee
Giovanni Giuriati (IISMC, Director), Gianluca Chelini (Università di Roma “La Sapienza”)
Costantino Vecchi (Università di Venezia)
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should consist of a title, abstract (350 words).
Accepted papers will be allotted 20 minutes for presentation plus 10 minutes for discussion.
All proposals should be submitted electronically to the following e-mail address: musica.comparata@cini.it
Notification of acceptance will be sent via email by March 15, 2024.