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The British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE) is pleased to announce the opening of the 2025 Fieldwork Grants scheme. BFE Fieldwork Grants support doctoral candidates conducting ethnomusicological field research in the UK and abroad by contributing towards costs (e.g., for travel and subsistence). Two grants were awarded in 2024, together totalling £1800.
For more information on eligibility and how to apply, visit this page of the BFE website. We look forward to receiving your applications!
Huge congratulations to BFE member and former Committee member Dr Matthew Machin-Autenreith, who has been awarded the prestigious prize by Society for Ethnomusicology for the co-edited book Music and the Making of Portugal and Spain: Nationalism and Identity Politics in the Iberian Peninsula.
Co-edited by Matthew Machin-Autenrieth, Salwa el-Shawan Castelo Branco and Samuel Llano this book explores the relationship between national and regional identities in the Iberian Peninsula through the prism of musical practice across genres from the late 19th century to the present day.
The Ellen Koskoff Edited Volume Prize Committee stated: ‘While the committee received a number of excellent submissions for this year’s review cycle, we found the scholarly rigor and innovative perspectives on nationalism and heritagization of your collection to be exceptional. All committee members agreed that Music and the Making of Portugal and Spain makes an invaluable contribution to music studies on the Iberian Peninsula, Ethnomusicology, and many other related fields of study’. We also have the following quote from Matthew:
I would like to say a big thank you to the prize committee, to the wonderful contributors who made the volume possible and to my incredible co-editors, Salwa and Samuel. I feel very honoured to have our work recognised in this way"
‘While the committee received a number of excellent submissions for this year’s review cycle, we found the scholarly rigor and innovative perspectives on nationalism and heritagization of your collection to be exceptional. All committee members agreed that Music and the Making of Portugal and Spain makes an invaluable contribution to music studies on the Iberian Peninsula, Ethnomusicology, and many other related fields of study’.
The book is fully open access via this link: https://muse.jhu.edu/book/114097.
We are delighted to announce that registration is now open for the 2024 British Forum for Ethnomusicology Autumn Conference which will be hosted online by the University of Southampton.
BFE Autumn Conference
Creative writing, music and ethnography
Friday 29th November - 9.45am - 4.45pm (GMT/UK time)
This event will take place online via Microsoft Teams and admission is free, but it is essential that all participants register to attend via Eventbrite.
The programme for this event can be found on the conference page of the BFE website.
Please do email Hettie Malcomson [she/they] – h.malcomson
soton.ac.uk
– if you have any queries.
bfe.org.uk
The BFE is proud to support the upcoming one-day conference '(In)Visible Publics: Performing (Non)belonging', hosted by the Department of Music at University College Dublin. This online conference focussing on "the entanglements between creative practices, performing (in)visibility, and reinforcing senses of (non-)belonging" is being convened by BFE member Dr Chrysi Kyratsou and will take place on Friday 13th September: registration details are available via this link.
For more details on the event and to view the conference programme and abstracts, please visit the UCD website. We hope to see many of you there!
The British Forum for Ethnomusicology has written to the Warden of Goldsmiths, University of London to express concern regarding proposed cuts to music teaching and staff.
The Music Department at Goldsmiths has played a significant role in broadening the study of music in UK higher education, in part through its ethnomusicology programmes. Among other contributions, Music at Goldsmiths has established an influential and interdisciplinary ethnographic approach to aural and visual cultures, an accomplishment celebrated earlier this year with the publication of Ethnomusicology and Its Intimacies: Essays in Honour of John Baily, which brings together chapters on performance, biography, and film by several distinguished ethnomusicologists.
Goldsmiths has also shaped Music HE through the people it has trained. Several prominent senior UK music scholars studied ethnomusicology at Goldsmiths as MA or PhD students, and the tradition of educating future leaders continues, with a number of recent MA or PhD graduates currently making important contributions to musical practice and research at universities in the UK and abroad.
As a subject area whose members make up only a small proportion of the staff in most UK music and anthropology departments, we are aware that we are only able to make a positive impact on studies when we work in academic units that are open and inclusive. Goldsmiths has long epitomised such inclusiveness as an institution with a commitment to both academic and practical music studies, and to popular, folk, and classical musics from within and outside the West.
We urge Goldsmiths to continue to invest in a department that promotes this broad understanding of music studies, and in this way to contribute to the development and transformation of that subject area in the years to come.
The Executive Committee of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology
Ruard Absaroka
Cassandre Balosso-Bardin
Morgan Davies
Byron Dueck
Andrew Green
Lea Hagmann
Stina Homer
Matthew Machin-Autenrieth
Luigi Monteanni
Min Yen Ong
Helena Simonett
Jason Stanyek
Peter Underwood
Amanda Villepastour
Stephen Wilford
David Wong
The British Forum for Ethnomusicology seeks nominations for four positions on the BFE Executive Committee. The terms of several current members of the BFE Committee are coming an end and three members intend to stand for re-election.
The BFE is in need of dedicated Committee members who will make important contributions to the day-to-day running and future development of the BFE. In line with our ambitions as a subject association, we welcome nominations that will help the Committee reflect the diversity of our membership and discipline.
Please consider applying, especially if you have had experience of organising conferences.
General responsibilities of Committee members include:
The roles for Committee members in this election round are:
1) BFE Conference Liaison (3 positions)
Together, the BFE’s three conference liaisons oversee the society’s conference schedule, which involves:
2) Membership Liaison Officer (1 position)
The Membership Liaison Officer maintains and develops relationships between the membership of the BFE and the Executive Committee, including by bringing forward issues from members for consideration by the Committee. The Officer also works on initiatives related to membership and marketing in conjunction with the BFE General Administrator and the Membership Administrator.
To be nominated, please send a statement (300 words maximum) to the BFE Administrator, Morgan Davies (adminbfe.org.uk ()) by the end of Wednesday 8th May. Statements will be forwarded to the BFE membership and the BFE email list prior to voting.
If you wish to stand for election you must be nominated by one BFE member and seconded by another. Please copy the nominators into the email containing your statement.
The statement should include:
You are very welcome to contact the BFE Administrator with questions about the post.
In order to vote you need to be a current member of BFE, so please renew your membership for 2024 if you have not done so already. Online voting will take place soon after the deadline for nominations and the results will be announced to the BFE membership and the BFE email list.
The British Forum for Ethnomusicology Early Career Prize is awarded biennially for a distinguished article or book chapter solely written by a BFE member in the early stages of their career. Articles/book chapters should be in English and be published in a peer-reviewed academic journal or edited collection between 16 December 2021 and 31 December 2023. Authors must be BFE members at the time of submission. (BFE membership corresponds with the calendar year.) Only one individually authored article OR book chapter can be submitted per nominee.
In terms of eligibility, the BFE has adapted the Arts & Humanities Research Council’s definition of an early career researcher as an individual who is EITHER: within eight years of their PhD viva/defence or completing an equivalent professional training; OR within six years of their first full- or part-time research and/or teaching appointment. The above time restrictions can exclude any period of career break for family care or health reasons.
Self-nominations are encouraged, but others can also nominate an author for the prize. Please ensure however that nominees are fully eligible, both with respect to BFE membership and early career status, and that they have not already nominated themselves.
Nominations should be accompanied by the article/book chapter and an abstract, as well as a CV or other piece of evidence that proves eligibility. These documents must be submitted electronically in pdf format to the Prizes Officer, Amanda Villepastour (VillepastourAVCardiff.ac.uk). Any queries about the prize can also be sent to this email address.
All submissions must be received by Monday 26 February 2024 and the outcome will be announced in summer 2024. The prize winner will be invited to deliver a keynote lecture at the annual BFE-RMA Research Students’ Conference in January 2025.
Please respond by 1st March 2024
The British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE) invites expressions of interest from institutions interested in hosting either the BFE’s Autumn Conference in 2024 or the Annual Conference in April 2025.
Autumn Conference 2024
The BFE Autumn Conference is usually held on a Saturday in November (although late October and early December are also possibilities). This conference is more narrowly themed than the Annual Conference and focuses on specific, sometimes emerging, areas of ethnomusicologicial enquiry. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged.
A summary of past Autumn Conferences can be found at https://bfe.org.uk/conference-archive-one-day.
Annual Conference 2025
The BFE Annual Conference runs for four days (usually from Thursday to Sunday) and is normally held in April during the Easter vacation period. The Annual Conference typically has a theme, although delegates may present research on any subject of interest to ethnomusicologists.
A summary of past Annual Conferences can be found at https://bfe.org.uk/conference-archive-annual.
BFE conferences will be the financial responsibility of the host institution, but the local arrangements committee will be supported by the BFE’s conference liaison officer(s).
To express interest in hosting either conference, please send no more than one side of paper outlining:
• a proposed theme and description;
• who will be responsible for planning the event;
• the advantages of hosting it at your institution.
Expressions of interest should be sent to the conference liaison officer, Matthew Machin-Autenrieth at matthew.machin-autenriethabdn.ac.uk. If you would like to have an informal conversation about hosting the conference before sending an expression of interest, do please get in touch.
The British Forum for Ethnomusicology seeks expressions of interest for the election of a conference liaison on the BFE Executive Committee. This is to replace the outgoing conference liaison from April 2024.
It is vital for the future of the BFE that we have a strong Committee so please do consider nominating yourself. We are looking for committed committee members who will make an important contribution to the day-to-day running and future development of the BFE. In line with our equality ambitions as a subject association, we welcome nominations that will help the Committee reflect the diversity of our membership and discipline.
General responsibilities of committee members include:
Specific Roles for the Conference Liaison
Expressions of interest should include the following:
Expressions of interest should be sent to Matthew Machin-Autenrieth (matthew.machin-autenriethabdn.ac.uk ()) and copied to Morgan Davis (adminbfe.org.uk ()) by 1st March 2024.
