Abstract accepted for IASPM ANZ conference, December 2015

The 2015 conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music Australia-New Zealand branch will be held this December at the School of Music, Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.  With the theme speaking to 'Popular Music, Stars and Stardom', the conference will be a wonderful opportunity to share with popular music studies colleagues some key findings that have emerged from the research.

Abstract accepted for the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia conference, December 2015

The 2015 conference of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia will be held this December at the University of Melbourne. The conference theme is 'Minor Culture', so one of particular relevance to a project that is looking at archival practices occurring outside mainstream heritage institutions. The conference will be a great opportunity to share some key findings that have emerged from this research and to get feedback from the cultural studies scholarly community.

Collaborations with colleagues at Birmingham City University

This month should have seen me visiting the UK and Ireland for events co-organised with colleagues from Birmingham City University. Circumstances meant I had to stay in Australia but the events went on in my absence. Accounts of both events have been helpfully blogged by Jez Collins.

Presentation on affective archiving and collective collecting at Edinburgh conference

The last two days have been spent in Edinburgh at the conference "On Collecting: Music, Materiality and Ownership" held at the National Museum of Scotland. 

Talking DIY sustainability with Jez Collins at the Poplife conference

It has been an enjoyable two days at "Poplife: the value of popular music in the twenty first century", a conference hosted by the University of Northampton.

Radical Archives conference at NYU

I'm in New York City to attend the 'Radical Archives' conference presented by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, curated by Mariam Ghani and Chitra Ganesh, and held on 11-12 April in the NYU Cantor Film Centre. As the first "archival" conference I have attended I was interested to see how its concerns intersected with my own approach to thinking about the DIY practices and processes of the institutions that are the focus of my research, particularly because the conference was focused on activist archives. 

Abstract accepted for the On Collecting conference

I'm looking forward to visiting Edinburgh in July for the 'On Collecting: Music, Materiality and Ownership' conference, where I will be presenting a paper in the panel "Formats and the act of collecting". The conference will be held at the National Museum of Scotland.

Forthcoming fieldwork in the USA

Now that I’m back from New Zealand another fieldwork trip is in the planning. In April I will be heading to the USA for a whirlwind stint of fieldwork that will see me visiting Texas, Florida, New York and Rhode Island.

Panel proposal accepted for the Pop-Life conference

A panel co-organised with Jez Collins (Birmingham City University and Birmingham Music Archive) titled “A pile of history, found in my parents attic”: The everyday histories and archives of popular music heritage” has been accepted for the conference Pop-Life: The Value of Popular Music in the Twenty First Century to be held at the University of Northampton, UK, on 6-7 June 2014. In addition to a co-authored paper by the co-organisers, other papers on the panel will be by Lisa Busby (Goldsmiths, University of London and Editions of You) and Paul Long (Birmingham City University).

Conference presentation on archival ecologies and affective atmospheres

Over the last few days I have been in Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) attending the International Association for the Study of Popular Music Australia-New Zealand branch annual conference. This year the theme was Popular Music Communities, Places and Ecologies and the conference sought to foster scholarly engagement with the various ways in which music, people and place are connected (see the original call for papers here).

Jez Collins on 'activist archivism'

During discussion at the “DIY Preservation” round table held yesterday as part of the ‘Re/soundings: Documenting music and memory’ event in Rotterdam, Professor George McKay (University of Salford) questioned the use of the term DIY to describe the kinds of heritage institutions that I am exploring in this project. His argument was that “DIY is about grassroots, alternative culture and politics” and so using ‘DIY’ in the context of these archives and museums “depoliticizes” the concept.

"Do-it-together" - a round table on DIY heritage practices

This afternoon I participated in a round table on “DIY Preservation” that was held as part of the ‘Re/soundings: Documenting music and memory’ event in Rotterdam. The round table was billed as a “knowledge exchange” and this turned out to be a very accurate description of what ensued.

Presentations on DIY archives - Rotterdam, 30 January-1 February 2013

Later his month I will be presenting a plenary paper at the "Popular Music Heritage, Cultural Memory and Cultural Identity" (POPID) conference being held in Rotterdam on 31 January-1 February. The paper, co-written with Alison Huber, comes out of the work we did for the Popular Music and Cultural Memory project and draws on our interviews and fieldwork at the Australian Country Music Hall of Fame in Tamworth, New South Wales. Prior to the conference, on 30 January, I will be participating in a round table discussion on "DIY Preservationism" at the Re/soundings Knowledge Exchange Event.