Symposium Theme

To acknowledge and feel discomfort is to attune the self and to prepare for the consequences of this negative affect: pain, violence, excess, precarity, to name only a few. As such, we take discomfort as a serious entry-point into larger conversations which affect scholars and the communities they serve. In yet another political moment where discomfort is being appropriated and weaponized to erase populations, we ask: what happens and what can happen when we listen to and act upon the cries of communities that face such erasure? Why should we, the abject, the minoritarian, feel discomfort in the first place? Discomfort therefore collects these people in this place in order to repair, relieve, and prevent the harms experienced in the academy. 

To sit and contend with our discomfort as settlers and members of imperial institutions also forces our disciplines to contend with the fact that the current state of our environments to which we belong are not, of themselves, sites of liberation. Knowing that we are “In Discomfort,” however, also means we know that we can feel and maybe have felt otherwise.

Symposium Events

Wednesday, 9 November 2022 3:00-7:00 (Grand Salon 13/16, 1st Floor)

Registration/Check-In opens at 3:00pm

Opening Remarks at 3:15pm

In Discomfort as Seminar 3:30-5:00pm

How do we feel discomfort? What power does naming our discomfort have? This seminar session seeks to understand discomfort in its many forms. Our discussion will use the texts as a focal point through which we will address what we can do about or should do about discomfort in and beyond the academy.

To ground our exploration of the symposium theme and to equip us with a shared vocabulary, we will hold a seminar on discomfort. Readings will be drawn from music studies as well as other arts/humanities disciplines. Excerpts from the selected texts and discussion questions will be circulated in advance of the seminar. To begin, the seminar facilitators will offer short summaries of the readings. Next, participants will be divided into small groups to discuss the texts with facilitators moderating discussions. The seminar will then move into a final group discussion.

Workshop on Syllabi (De)construction 5:30-7:00pm

In this workshop, participants will learn how to deconstruct a syllabus with a focus on accessibility and disability justice. The workshop will begin with a critical self-reflection, in which participants will be asked to reflect on their relative privilege, power, and position in relation to their students as well as to larger institutional structures (universities, academic societies, etc.). We will then review various ways to prioritize accessibility, including Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and trauma-informed pedagogy. The workshop will conclude with participants workshopping syllabi and lesson plans in groups. The purpose of this workshop is for us to consider how we can begin the process of dismantling the structures of power that privilege particular groups in the academy to the exclusion and marginalization of others.

For this workshop, Project Spectrum is working in collaboration with the AMS Music Pedagogy Study Group as well as the AMS, SMT, and SEM Disability and Music Study Groups.

Workshop leaders include: Robin Attas, Samantha Bassler, Andrew Dell’Antonio, Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, Elizabeth McLain

Dinner at Legacy Kitchen’s Craft Tavern
700 Tchoupitoulas St. #3612, New Orleans, LA 70130

Note: This is an ~8-minute walk away from the conference venue. Unfortunately, there is no outdoor seating at this restaurant. There will be no vegan/vegetarian options.

Thursday, 10 November 2022 8:00am-12:00pm (River, 4th floor)

Check-in & Breakfast 8:00-8:30am

Workshop on Social Justice/Activism Supporting Indigenous Communities 8:30-10:00am

Special guest: Jacqueline Deshchidn [San Carlos Apache Nation]

This workshop will educate participants on decolonization from a perspective grounded in space, place, water, and land. The workshop leaders will introduce participants to the contemporary efforts of Indigenous activists working toward the reclamation of land and resources in Bulbancha (New Orleans). They will also share their strategies for organizing campaigns toward decolonization and offer advice for how non-Native allies and accomplices can most effectively join in this work in their own communities. The final portion of the workshop will be devoted to breakout groups, in which participants will respond to various scenarios that call for non-Native people to support their Native communities. Throughout the exercise, participants will receive feedback and direction from workshop leaders on how to best align their efforts with those of the community organizers. Ultimately, this workshop will demonstrate that if we truly seek to be decolonial in our research and teaching, we must also commit ourselves to decolonization beyond the academy.

Call for Insights Panel and Closing Discussion 10:30am-12:00pm

Project Spectrum’s 2022 symposium is devoted to the emotional, affective, and invisible labor(s) of feeling in and out of the university. This event seeks to explore and confront the deep discomforts of academia, and the paths to finding true fulfillment. We ask contributors to offer their insights as to how graduate students and Ph.D.’s in music studies reimagine the possibilities of life and work beyond academia’s norms. These insights are meant to center the hard truths of the “discomfort” within the academy, including the emotional effort it might take to leave the academy, and what prosperity and fulfillment feel like outside of the academy’s benchmarks of institutional successes. In closing, we will consider how the whole symposium has led us to center discomfort and the potentialities of “feeling otherwise” in order to imagine a new field of music studies.

Speakers include: Rachel Chery, Luis Manuel Garcia, Amanda Hsieh, Krystal Klingenberg, Balakrishnan Raghavan, Lissa Reed

[POST-SYMPOSIUM EVENT] Decolonizing New Orleans, Walking Tour

Please note: Unfortunately, this event is not accessible to physically disabled people and will be capped to 25 registrants at the request of our guide. We acknowledge the lack of full inclusivity of this event and welcome feedback and discussion for how we can make similar events more accessible for the future.

Local Chahta trans creator, Lola Jean Darling, will lead a small group on a one-hour walking tour in New Orleans/ancestral Bulbancha and teach about local Indigenous history through story-telling. This will be a critical learning opportunity for settler-learners who come to visit this city.