Symposia and conferences

Student Community Music Research Symposium

The ICCM in collaboration with Sound Sense has been hosting its annual Student Community Music Research Symposium since 2015. 

Previous themes have included: 

• Critique, not criticism: why we ask the questions we ask
• The Ethics of Community Music Research
• 'It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it.' Methodological and conceptual frameworks in community music research

Keynote speakers have included:

• Kathryn Deane
• Dr Dave Camlin
• Dr Alicia de Banffy-Hall
• Dr Kathleen Turner

ICCM Online events

Previous events include:

• Singing and Health collaborations between academic and cultural institutions: a case of ICCM and More Music
  
  Hosted by ICCM researcher Ruth Currie. Ruth shared reflections from the development of a pilot research collaboration with a cultural institution who are working in partnership with a local NHS medical group. The webinar focused on how community music research seeks to challenge inequality. 
  
  
• Music Collaboration Across Difference: Community Music Projects from Canada
  
  Hosted by Dr Gerard Yun and Dr Deanna Yerichuk from Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. The webinar included reports from research projects across Canada focused on bridging differences in and through music. Collectively, participants were able to consider the possibilities and limits of music to bridge differences that are tied to privilege and oppression. They could then consider how to engage in relationships that contribute to positive social change through music. 

The York Forum

The ICCM York Forum aims to foster an environment where community music scholarship can flourish in York, encouraging a continuing dialogue surrounding contemporary issues and current challenges of community music research and practice.

The Forum also aims to enable the development of networks among York-based practitioners, students and organisations engaged in community music practice. 

Previous themes have included: 

• The First Five Minutes, 27th March 2019
  
  Led by Catherine Birch and Lee Higgins we explored the notions of the “welcome” and “hospitality” through focusing on the first five minutes of a community music workshop. What does it mean to be welcoming? One might say that a well-placed and genuine welcome might make those whom receive it feel like the new place is “home from home” setting up a positive situation – one where the wish is to repeat the experience. But is this achievable or even appropriate in every contextual location, and how can we navigate the murky waters of ‘messy’ hospitality? Examples of practice illuminated the complexes of human relationships within set boundaries and across profound social barriers.
  
  
• A way, not The Way, 8th October 2019
  
  Led by Sarah Fisher, ‘A way, not The Way' is a pedagogical approach providing a useful lens into how practitioners may facilitate musical development with individuals living with special educational needs and disabilities. An essential element to this approach is the teacher and student relationship and the notions of; motivation, constructive criticism of musicality, not a disability; and the development of a way (not the way) to teach new musical skills. An opportunity was given for participants to discuss these ideas and network with other local community music practitioners, organisations and post-graduate students.

Conferences and collaborations

The ICCM works in collaboration with its partners to develop and host conferences that respond to issues surrounding community music.

Previous events have included: 

• Breaking Boundaries: New York, 2018
  
  As a development of our Student Symposium the ICCM co-hosted an event with Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City.
  
  
• Community Music: Intersections, crossfields, and ecologies, 2018
  
  The Free University of Bozen, Italy, in partnership with the International Centre for Community Music at York St John University, UK, hosted the 2^nd Italian Conference on Community Music.
  
  
• Engaging in Community Music, Free University Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, 2017
  
  Co-hosted the first community music conference in Italy alongside colleagues from the Free University in Bozen-Bolzano.
  
  
• Walking the Boundaries, Bridging the Gaps: International Community Music Conference, 2017
  
  The ICCM co-hosted this event in collaboration with Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada. Find out more by downloading the overview: Walking the Boundaries Conference (PDF, 77 kB)

Community Music and Social Sustainability Network meeting

A collaboration between music and geography this YSJ funded event brought a group of people together to consider how those human/cultural geographers might work alongside musicians to explore themes such as place, space, memory, and social sustainability.