Musica Ficta Conference: Social Justice & Music Education

If you are interested in issues of social justice and music education consider attending the upcoming Musica Ficta Lived Realities: A Conference on Exclusions and Engagements in Music, Education and the Arts, at the Univesity of Toronto from Thurs. Jan. 24 – Sun. Jan. 27 2008. It looks like an excellent set of sessions and workshops with some far reaching implications for the field. I’ll be presenting a paper entitled “Flippin’ the misogynist script: Representation and agency of women in Hip-Hop – Implications for music education.” I’ll post some resources and information about the paper after the conference.

Here’s a description of the conference:

Scholars, researchers, educators, artists, and activists interested in issues of social justice related to the arts and arts education are invited to attend musica ficta / Lived Realities: A Conference on Exclusions and Engagements in Music, Education and the Arts. Organized around the themes of complicity, complacency, and complexity, the primary goal of the musica ficta conference is to radicalize the notion of social justice as it currently circulates in music, education, and the arts. Participants will examine ways in which the profession is implicated in various types of inequities, injustices, and oppressions while exploring appropriate and viable responses through presentation/seminars and workshop/demonstrations. Focusing on connections between and amongst arts educators, students, researchers, artist-educators, and activists, the conference attempts to demonstrate communication and community-in-transit. Its format is multi-dimensional, with featured speakers, small interactive presentation seminars, workshop demonstrations, performances, and visits to schools and community organizations.

Selected featured speakers include:
Deborah Wong, University of California-Riverside
Rinaldo Walcott, Canada Research Chair, Social Justice and Cultural Studies (OISE)
Rick Surpin, Independence Care System, New York, NY
Sherene Razack, Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies, Sociology and Equity (OISE)
Estelle Jorgensen, Indiana University
Sara Gould, Ms. Foundation for Women and Children, New York, NY