GWAM

The GWAM Network’s inaugural symposium takes place at the University of Chicago, from 11 to 13 November, 2024. This three-day event includes keynote speeches by Professors Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco and Thomas Christensen, five themed panels with themes ranging from post-colonial musical resistance to operatic interculturality, to post-Imperial historiography, to instruments and the global theory of music. The symposium also features two workshop/concerts by the University of Chicago’s Middle East Music Ensemble (MEME) and South Asian Music Ensemble (SAME), a student workshop, and a final roundtable. 

Participants represent a wide range of perspectives and experiences, foregrounding in particular emerging voices from the Global South (Asia, South/Central Americas, Middle East, and Africa). Through this initiative, we aim to integrate their voices into the practice of knowledge creation and to map out policy pathways for institutions and the community, contributing to a more equitable and inclusive future for music-making, programming and scholarship.

The Chicago Symposium will be livestreamed and recorded, to ensure access by a global audience, both in real time and as an archived resource for future reference and reflections. Drawing upon work presented at the Chicago events, a policy report will be prepared, aimed at policymakers and cultural and educational stakeholders. This multi-focal crystallization of the findings and discussions will offer pathways towards the diversification and decolonization of curricula and repertories. Additionally, a multi-authored volume is planned for publication, offering paradigm-shifting and state-of-the-art arguments and studies.