Sounding the Nation? Diaspora, Indigeneity, and Multiculturalism
IASPM-Canada Annual Conference
Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia
June 14 - 17, 2012

What does a critical examination of diaspora offer to our understanding of popular music in the multicultural settler nation of Canada? Over the past twenty years, the term diaspora has proliferated as a way of making sense of how groups of people, defined through ethnicity, culture, religion, and homeland, have circulated and settled in a postcolonial and increasingly globalized world. Although the history of diaspora is shaped by violence and inequality, the concept has also permitted scholars to move beyond a static sense of a "homeland" or a "multicultural mosaic" and examine the complicated interstices, hybridities, and networks that link populations through travel, communication, memory-and music.

The site of this conference, at Acadia University, Nova Scotia, calls to mind many histories of diaspora, colonialism, and the challenging ways in which music, race, identity, and ethnicity can intertwine. Acadia University is near Grand Pré, one of the principal sites of the Great Expulsion and subsequent return of the Acadians, for whom popular music continues to play an integral role in negotiating identity, language, and ethnicity. The nearby town of Weymouth was an important destination for Black Loyalists in the eighteenth century, and its proximity to the Acadian village of Claire exemplifies the complex social history of Nova Scotia. Both historically and continuing to the present day, diasporic communities and the indigenous Mi' Kmaq peoples all negotiate their sense of race, ethnicity, and identity in ways that are inseparable from each others' belief systems. Diaspora also figures into the Nova Scotian Celtic identity myth, which is reinforced by provincial tourism campaigns and influences provincial support of local music. Finally, twentieth-century outmigration has led to a diaspora of sorts for Atlantic Canadians seeking work in Western provinces, who use music as a means of preserving their cultural ties.

The conference organizers invite proposals for individual presentations, panels, workshops or performances on a broad range of topics related to the theme of the conference, including, but not limited to, the following

* diasporic popular music genres: bhangra, Bollywood, klezmer, etc.

* hip-hop and other genres of the "Black Atlantic"

* popular music and diasporic identities

* popular music and indigeneity

* popular music and nationalism/nationality

* popular music and language, language rights, linguistic minorities, and linguistic assimilation

* popular music, travel, and racialized/gendered identities

* popular music and physical/virtual borders

* popular music and racializing practice and discourse: "love and theft," appropriation, borrowing, the "post-racial," etc.

* popular music and Canadian multicultural ideologies and policies

* popular music analysis and diasporic musical styles

* popular music and mobility

Proposals for single papers, workshops, performances or other forms of presentation may be submitted. Abstracts for individual papers, roundtables, and workshops should be no longer than 300 words; proposals for panels should include an abstract of no more than 300 words for the panel as a whole, as well as abstracts of no more than 300 words for each paper proposed for the panel. It is possible that the program committee may accept a panel but reject an individual paper on that panel.

Each abstract should include a short biography (100 words) of the author (or each author if there are more than one) including the institutional affiliation if applicable and email address of each author. Each abstract should also include five keywords identifying the subject of the paper.

Please submit your abstract in French or English, depending on the language in which the paper will be presented, by October 20, 2011 (for consideration for travel reimbursement) or November 20, 2011 (final deadline for all others) to acadia2012@mcmaster.ca or iaspmca@mcmaster.ca

All proposals will be read blind and evaluated by the program committee.

The program committee consists of the following individuals:

Dr. Christina Baade, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia, McMaster University

Dr. Norma Coates, Associate Professor, Don Wright Faculty of Music and Faculty of Information and Media Studies, University of Western Ontario

Dr. Jeff Hennessy, Director, School of Music, Acadia University

Dr. Charity Marsh, Canada Research Chair in Interactive Media and Performance, University of Regina

Dr. Johanne Melancon, professeure agrégée, Département d'études françaises, Université Laurentienne

Eric Smialek, Ph.D. student, Schulich School of Music, McGill University

Dr. Richard Sutherland, Assistant Professor, Department of Policy Studies, Mount Royal University

Dr. Jacqueline Warwick, Associate Professor, Music Department, Dalhousie University

Papers will be limited to a standard 20-minute length followed by 10 minutes of questions, whereas other presentations will be limited to 60 minutes. All participants must be members of IASPM-Canada. Membership information is available on the following website: www.iaspm.ca

For questions about the conference, contact program chair, Christina Baade (baadec@mcmaster.ca), or local arrangements chair, Jeff Hennessy (jeff.hennessy@acadiau.ca).

Submission deadlines:

October 20, 2011 (for consideration for travel reimbursement)

November 20, 2011 (final deadline for all others)

Applicants will be notified of the program committee's final decisions by January 9, 2012.