Social Science Research Council

"Music in Conflict and Reconciliation"

On January 9-11, 2004, the SSRC’s Program on the Arts hosted a meeting on “Music in Conflict and Reconciliation” at the John Hope Franklin Center for International and Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University. Led by Arts Committee member Paul Berliner, the conference took as its task the integration of scholarship about music and dance with discussions about human rights, social activism, documentary and archival work, and live performance. Discussions focused on such questions as: By what means do the arts become implicated in power struggles at the level of personal, local, national and global politics? Alternatively, by what means or processes might the arts mitigate damaging images of others? How is it that the arts—in their various media—hold the capacity to inspire, mobilize, heal and destroy?

The workshop balanced formal presentations, discussion, and live performance. It brought together academics and musicians concerned with the performing arts from a range of interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives.

“Music in Conflict and Reconciliation” is an area in which research, testimonial, performance and advocacy work come together. Finding common spaces and languages for artists, documentary workers, researchers and activists around these issues is a challenge, but one that can enrich our understanding of both the arts and processes of social change.

Participants

Catherine Admay, Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University

Rahim Alhaj, oud player and composer

John Baily, Ethnomusicology, Goldsmiths College, University of London

Paul Berliner, Ethnomusicology, John Hope Franklin Center, Duke University

Alison des Forges, Senior advisor to the African Division of Human Rights Watch, researcher on Rwanda and Burundi for Human Rights, 1991-1994

Steven Feld, Music and Anthropology, University of New Mexico

Ellen Gray, PhD Candidate, Cultural Anthropology, Duke University

Bennetta Jules-Rosette, Sociology, University of California San Diego

Joe Karaganis, Arts Program Director, SSRC

Marie Korpe, Executive Director, Freemuse

Louise Meintjes, Ethnomusicology, Duke University

Ana Maria Ochoa, Ethnomusicology, Columbia University

Jose Manuel Osorio, Fado singer and activist

Julie Taylor, Anthropology, Rice University