The International Journal of Traditional Arts: Announcements

NEW SPECIAL ISSUE PUBLISHED: ‘Social justice, human rights, and sustainability of traditional arts’

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2022-11-14

This special issue illuminates the multifaceted and sometimes surprising relationships between social justice, human rights, and the sustainability of traditional arts. Through six case studies across four continents, it reveals how vibrant and viable traditional arts practices can be formidable instruments in the pursuit of social justice and human rights, but can also work against them. It shows how human rights violations and social injustices threaten the sustainability of traditional arts, but can also counterintuitively underpin them; and how cultural sustainability interventions may have beneficial, but also complex, ramifications for human rights and social justice. Contributing to critical scholarship on the role of vibrant cultural practices in equitable, inclusive, and thriving societies, this special issue offers new insights into the important ethical, methodological, and practical implications of its vast topic.

Contents:

Introduction to “Social justice, human rights, and sustainability of traditional arts”

Catherine Grant

Wellbeing, cultural protection, and sustainability of traditional music among children and young adult Syrian refugees: The case of Nefes Music School

Guilnard Jean Moufarrej

The importance of the “Mazowsze” National Folk Song and Dance Ensemble in initiatives to sustain and revitalize folk music and dance in Poland.

Katarzyna Ewa Skiba

Music and the African girl child: Sustainability and resistance in Pot Drum Music

Ruth Opara

Far from forgotten: Bharatanatyam, cultural infrastructure, and the conundrum of promoting equity when funding US-based state folklife apprenticeships

Aruna Kharod

Participatory ethnomusicology: An epistemic approach to social justice, human rights, and the sustainability of the traditional arts of minorities

Subash Giri

Revitalizing Potehi practice: Preservation, innovation, and transmission by Rumah Cinwa in contemporary Indonesia

Yuan-Hsin Tung, Dewi Woro Retno Mastuti

New Open Access Article: ‘They must know me’: Embodied Intertextuality and the Reworking of Local Dance Traditions for International Audiences (Dr Daithí Kearney)

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2022-09-29

Keywords: Irish step dance, folk theatre, embodied practice, intertextuality, Siamsa Tíre

ABSTRACT

Interaction between the local and the global, and the implications of these interactions for tradition, are a recurring feature of scholarship and activity in Irish traditional music and the focus in this article is the role and representation of the local through an embodied and evolving regional dance tradition. This article examines how Siamsa Tíre, The National Folk Theatre of Ireland, has conserved and developed the North Kerry ‘Munnix’ style of traditional step dancing as a resilient culture and continued to embody a local identity through its use of local dance steps whilst engaging with international artists to develop new artistic expression through dance. This study considers the impact of Riverdance on an understanding of Irish dance in theatre and activities during periods of social restrictions relating to COVID-19 that impact on the resilience of the tradition.

Initial productions from the 1960s presented aspects of Irish rural life and culture in the early twentieth century through music, song, dance and mime. Later developments and productions from the 1980s sought to expand the style and aesthetics of the company without abandoning local cultural references. This is particularly evident in an analysis or close reading of dance steps and intertextuality, in this case focusing on the steps and motifs of ‘The Blackbird’ set dance from the Munnix tradition. Through personal reflections on my involvement as a trainee and performer with the company, archival research and dance, the article critically engages with intertextuality in the work of Siamsa Tíre, the role and representation of the local through an embodied dance tradition, and its contribution to the resilience of local traditions. Significantly, it reflects the embodiment of tradition and intangible cultural heritage through dance and my ability to recognise the core elements and adaptations that engage with change and development in a traditional art.

New Open Access Article by Professor Britta Sweers: 'The European Union, Brexit, and Ethnomusicology European Perspectives'

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2021-11-24

Dear readers,

Just a note to let you know that an important new research article by Professor Britta Sweers has been published in The International Journal of Traditional Arts examining European ethnomusicologies in the current context of Brexit in the European Union, arguing for a more muscular role for ethnomusicology internationally.

The European Union, Brexit, and Ethnomusicology European Perspectives

https://tradartsjournal.ncl.ac.uk/index.php/ijta/article/view/43

Britta SweersUniversity of Bern, Switzerland.

Keywords: European Union, Brexit, Advanced Chemistry, Killing Joke, Laibach, ethnomusicology ABSTRACT

Discussing central stations of the history of the European Union through song, this article aims at exemplifying how this history, as well as contemporary hidden emotions and fears can be uncovered by a deeper analysis of this material. First discussing case studies by, among others, Advanced Chemistry, Killing Joke, Laibach, the article discusses the broader Europe/ EU-related social, ideological, and political discourses behind the songs’ surface contents and structures. Subsequently likewise contextualizing Brexit-related musical discourses regarding issues of nationalism and Europeanness, the article finally provides reflection on the situation and role of ethnomusicology within this European context. As is argued here, ethnomusicological findings provide important insights into many Europe-related national/global debates. Despite or rather because of its small size, ethnomusicology appears as a globally highly interconnected discipline that urgently needs to bring out its findings more strongly into the public, which has especially become apparent within the context of Brexit.

Please do consider submitting your research articles for peer review to the journal we have recently migrated the journal to permanent new server at Newcastle University, UK--to enable us to offer a completely free open access journal in perpetuity. Free to submit, free to read with double-blind peer review. A link to our journal focus can be found here.

If you've any questions, do get in touch,

yours,

Drs Simon McKerrell & Simon Keegan-Phipps (Co-Editors).

<mailto:tradartsjournal@gmail.com>

New Article Alert: 'The European Union, Brexit, and Ethnomusicology European Perspectives' (Britta Sweers)

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2021-10-20

The European Union, Brexit, and Ethnomusicology

European Perspectives

https://tradartsjournal.ncl.ac.uk/index.php/ijta/article/view/43

Britta SweersUniversity of Bern, Switzerland.

Keywords: European Union, Brexit, Advanced Chemistry, Killing Joke, Laibach, ethnomusicology

ABSTRACT

If you've any questions, do get in touch,

yours,

Drs Simon McKerrell & Simon Keegan-Phipps (Co-Editors).

Call for Papers for Special Issue of IJTA: 'Social justice, human rights, and sustainability of traditional arts'

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2021-07-05

Authors are invited to submit manuscripts for consideration to a special issue of

International Journal of Traditional Arts (tradartsjournal.org) titled “Social justice, human rights, and sustainability of traditional arts”.

Especially since UNESCO’s 2003 Convention on the Urgent Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, scholars have paid concerted attention to local and global threats to the continued practice and intergenerational transmission of traditional arts, especially those of minoritized peoples (e.g. Letts 2015, Schippers & Grant 2016). A subset of this research examines particular issues of human rights and/or social justice – such as poverty (Moisala 2013), the climate crisis (Harrison 2020), and colonisation (Treloyn & Charles 2021) – that affect the ability of artists to practice their art, and others to engage with it. While studies like these offer rich insights into specific topics and contexts, the broader relationship of sustainability to matters of human rights and social justice remains under-theorised.

This special issue of ITJA invites consideration of all aspects of this relationship: how matters of human rights and/or social justice advance or inhibit the sustainability of traditional arts practices; and how vibrant arts practices, or initiatives to sustain them, progress (or sometimes hinder) human rights / social justice efforts. Both conceptual and practical perspectives are welcome. So too are critical case studies of specific minoritized groups, socio-political circumstances, traditional arts practices, or social or artistic interventions that illuminate some aspect of the special issue theme.

Potential topics include the relationship of the sustainability of traditional arts to matters of climate justice, cultural justice, economic justice, forced migration, gender equality, (de)colonisation, conflict, freedom of expression, access to education, and health equity (including Covid19). Further possible topics include, but are not limited to:

the effects of human rights violations or social injustices on the sustainability of traditional arts practices;
the potential of traditional arts sustainability initiatives to advance human rights and/or social justice;
the intersection of human rights instruments with efforts to sustain the traditional arts;
the ethics of sustaining traditional arts practices that perpetuate social injustices or inhibit human rights.

Scholarly manuscripts authored or co-authored by those working in non-academic fields, including artists, social justice / human rights activists, and members of the communities represented in the papers, are encouraged.

Submission

International Journal of Traditional Arts is a peer-reviewed online, fee-free, open-access journal. Submissions should align with the journal style, length (under 8000 words) and format. See guidelines for authors at https://tradartsjournal.org/index.php/ijta/about/submissions.

Expressions of interest: 27 August 2021

Full papers due: 1 March 2022

Publication: Estimated early 2023

Expressions of interest should comprise a draft title and abstract of the proposed contribution.

Enquiries

To submit expressions of interest and for any enquiries, contact the Guest Editor:

(Dr) Catherine Grant

Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre, Griffith University

catherine.grant@griffith.edu.au

References

Harrison, K. (2020). Indigenous music sustainability during climate change. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 43, 28-34.

Letts, R. (2015). Global perspectives: The IMC report on forces affecting music sustainability. World of Music, 89-102.

Moisala, P. (2013). “Nobody should be forced to make a living by begging“: Social exclusion and cultural rights of Gāine/Gandharva musicians of Nepal. Yearbook for Traditional Music, 45, 13-27.

Schippers, H., & Grant, C. (Eds.). (2016). Sustainable futures for music cultures: An ecological perspective. Oxford University Press.

Treloyn, S., & Charles, R. G. (2021). Music endangerment, repatriation, and intercultural collaboration in an Australian discomfort zone. Transforming Ethnomusicology Vol. II, 133-147.

New Look for the International Journal of Traditional Arts

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2018-12-05

Just a quick note to say that we have now migrated our journal onto the very latest Open Journal Systems platform and it has given us a slick new look!

Please do check out our current issue:

https://tradartsjournal.org/index.php/ijta

And circulate widely!

Do consider us for your next peer-reviewed research article, and we also welcome shorter, non-peer reviewed policy and briefings papers on a range of issues relating to the traditional arts.

yours,

Drs Simon McKerrell & Simon Keegan-Phipps

(Co-Editors, The International Journal of Traditional Arts)

International Journal of Traditional Arts ISSN number

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2018-09-19

The International Journal of Traditional Arts has been assigned the following ISSN number:

The international journal of traditional arts ISSN 2631-6064

Please update your records

many thanks,

Simon McKerrell & Simon Keegan-Phipps (Co-Editors, IJTA)

www.tradartsjournal.org

Prof. Birgit Abels first article of issue 2 published

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2018-04-09

'Music, Affect and Atmospheres:

Meaning and Meaningfulness in Palauan omengeredakl'

Birgit Abels

Abstract

In this article, I explore facets of the complex musical experience afforded by omengeredakl, a genre of traditional vocal music from Palau, Western Micronesia. The concept of atmosphere will lead me to propose a conceptual distinction between musical meaning(s) and musical meaningfulness as well as enable an integrated analysis of both. With this, I am pointing at weaknesses in some of the recent ethnomusicological literature on atmosphere: atmosphere should not be identified with affect, or looked at as part of a two-stage process in which affective experience is followed by reflective interpretation. The potential of atmospheres for the study of music lies precisely in that the concept enables us to transcend this and other pairs of opposites. Overcoming this binary will allow us to draw closer to the efficacy of music: after all, the proverbial ‘power of music’ exceeds the impact of affective experience and discursive meaning.

CfP Issue 2 International Journal of Traditional Arts

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2017-11-20

The International Journal of Traditional Arts welcomes submissions of either:

1) Research Articles are peer reviewed and open access with distributed archiving (i.e. they will never disappear once they have been published with a DOI). We welcome traditional articles with relevant sound files to illustrate if needed. And because we are an online-only journal, sound or links to video files can be an integral part of the paper. (c. 6-8000 words)

2) In addition we also wish to attract shorter policy and briefing papers of no more than 2,000 words (including title, abstract, and reference list), which should provide brief commentary on a specific, topical development in the field of cultural policy as it relates to traditional arts practice, or national updates on innovative or notable practices in traditional arts from around the world. These are not peer-reviewed, but are reviewed by an editor.

The International Journal of Traditional Arts is an international, peer-reviewed gold open access journal that promotes a broad-ranging understanding of the relevance of traditional arts in contemporary social life. The journal publishes leading and robust scholarship on traditional arts from around the world with a focus on the contemporary policy and practice of traditional music, dance, drama, oral narrative and crafts. We define ‘traditional arts’ as artistic and creative practices that function as a marker of identity for a particular cultural group and that have grown out of their oral tradition or that have been newly created using characteristics derived from oral tradition (although we would also welcome submissions that look to expand such definitions). We are interested in publishing high quality scholarship from ethnomusicology, cultural sociology, anthropology, ethnology, ethnochoreology, cultural policy, folklore, musicology, cultural studies, cultural economics, heritage and tourism studies that focuses upon contemporary policy and practice in the traditional arts.

yours,

Simon & Simon (McKerrell & Keegan-Phipps)

Inaugural Issue Published!

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2017-06-21

Official Launch Part Saturday 12th November Washington DC at SEM conference

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2016-11-08

Official Launch Part Saturday 12th November Washington DC at SEM conference, 8pm, Palladium Room, Omni Shoream Hotel, Washington DC., USA.

First Call for Papers for the International Journal of Traditional Arts!

The International Journal of Traditional Arts — 2016-07-25

First CFP for the IJTA