Music and Pleasure before the Law

Music and Pleasure before the Law https://www.ucd.ie/music/events/musicpleasurelaw/ 28-29 June 2023 University College Dublin

Keynote: Professor Suzanne Cusick Deadline for Abstracts: 5 February 2023

Today, scholars interested in expanding and diversifying the way we think music and sex together are faced with a rift between intellectual and political landscapes. On the one hand, such inquiry has been legitimized by more than thirty years of scholarship that has celebrated music’s capacity to represent myriad sexual experiences and identities, as well as its ability to engender radical, destabilizing forms of sonic pleasure. On the other, recent successful political and legal efforts to curtail sexual rights in the name of moral or religious objection are unwinding gains made from identity-based political action. To better navigate this climate, we seek to step back from the traditional focus on how musicians or musical works represent specific sexual desires and identities to interrogate the larger institutional, administrative, and discursive forces that conterminously shape the history of music and sexuality. Intentionally returning to Foucault’s interest in the emergence and productivity of disciplinary practices, this conference aims to examine moments where music and pleasure have been brought together before the law or, more generally, any authoritative discourse which purports to regulate human behavior. Inviting scholars to share diverse historical and cultural situations, we intend collectively to investigate the following questions: To what extent have legal or doctrinal discourses considered music and sexuality as analogous issues? What are the shared tactics used to regulate or manage musical and sexual behaviors? What actions have been taken by marginalized individuals or groups to undercut, evade, or reform discourses that limited musical and sexual freedom? What methodological, theoretical, or conceptual resources are needed to tackle such issues? Responding to these questions, we hope to consider how our reactions to contemporary sexual politics can draw from those who have previously encountered the varied, but historically persistent forces that attempt to bring order to the unruly world of sexual and musical experience.

Possible topics include: -Laws, canons, and regulations pertaining to music and sexual behavior. -Exemplary scandals or court cases in the history of music and sexuality. -Regulation of performers’ sexuality (either real or imagined). -Music and sex under colonial administration. -Transnational and comparative studies of music and law. -Policing tactics, censorship, or punishment of sexual/sonic transgressions. -Foucauldian approaches to the history of music and sexuality. -Biopolitics, reproduction, and the normalization of music/sound. -Definitions of musical or sonic obscenity. -Musical/sonic pleasure and morality. -Music and (sexual) repression. -Music and (sexual) liberation or protest.

Abstracts (max. 300 words) should be submitted through the conference website by 5 February 2023: https://www.ucd.ie/music/events/musicpleasurelaw/. While preference will be given to those who can intend in-person, we are happy to consider proposals for remote presentations to allow for those unable to travel to Dublin to participate. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by 20 February 2023 and all papers will be considered for publication as part of a peer-reviewed journal special issue.

All inquiries can be directed to Dr Kyle Kaplan and Dr Matthew Thomson at music.pleasure.law@gmail.com.