By Thomas Wagner (Royal Holloway University of London)

The annual BFE conference was held this year at St. John’s College, Oxford. Addressing the theme of “Musical Knowledge”, the four days were filled with a variety of interesting presentations and stimulating conversations, both during the sessions and after hours at the pub. Scholars from universities representing eighteen different countries spread across six continents joined delegates from universities located throughout the UK. (Curiously, Antarctica was not represented this year.) Nevertheless, the diversity of delegates attests to both the increasing influence of ethnomusicological scholarship globally and to the BFE’s influence and reliance upon scholarship the world over.

One notable addition to this year’s conference was, on the first day of the conference, the Student Concerns roundtable, organized and chaired by the BFE student representative, Carolyn Landau. The roundtable addressed two interrelated subjects that are certainly “concerns” of every PhD student: how to get published and how to get a job. Suzanne Ryan of Oxford University Press addressed the former concern, while Caroline Bithell and Angela Impey addressed the latter, from the perspective of the academic and nonacademic job markets, respectively. In light of the BFE’s increasing emphasis on student participation, I hope that this becomes a regular conference feature.

The highlight of the first day was the lively plenary, chaired by Pavlos Kavouras. The panel of Georgina Born, Marcello Sorce Keller, Suzel Reily, and Martin Clayton, enthusiastically set to the task laid before them, which was to discuss knowledge in purely theoretical terms. The ensuing dialogue left many in the audience inspired and an equal number scratching their heads; in either case, it provoked a great deal of discussion afterwards.

Although the distance between the two conference venues, St. John’s College and the Faculty of Music, caused some consternation because it limited delegates’ ability to pick and choose individual papers rather than complete sessions, the gorgeous weather more than compensated for this mild inconvenience. The sunshine and balmy temperature lasted for the duration of the conference; thus, the walk through the bustling Oxford town center was a joy. Each day, Cornmarket Street was filled with shoppers, students, and tourists, as well as numerous buskers vying for their attention and money.

The weather was just one of the enjoyments of the weekend. Oxford is home to a number of excellent delis, pubs, and restaurants, which made after hours get-togethers a social and gastronomic pleasure. Delegates could spend a free hour visiting the Pitt Rivers ethnographic museum or enjoying the view from atop Carfax Tower. The conference itself also offered a number of diversions. Among these was the opening reception on Thursday, sponsored by Taylor & Francis, and the reception on Friday at the Bate Collection, which boasts a variety of interesting instruments. Following the reception, the Oxford Gamelan Society gave a delightful informal performance, in which the audience could relax on the floor in front of the performance or step into the lobby to enjoy some delicious Indonesian cuisine provided by the society (Image 1).




Figure 1: Oxford Gamelan (image by M. Stokes, available on Facebook)

The Gamelan Society was just one of the varied musical offerings, including, on Thursday night, the “New Fado” group, Projecto Almagreira, whose jazz-influenced explorations of the Portuguese genre were at times haunting, at others driving, but always virtuosic. This was followed by Friday’s performance of Oxford Maqam, featuring conference host Martin Stokes, amongst other delegates and musicians (Image 2).

Figure 2: Performance by Oxford Maqam (image by A. Kirkegaard, available on Facebook)

Following Saturday’s panel sessions, The Annual General Meeting of the BFE was held. The BFE is healthy and growing, fueled in large part by a recent increase in student and international membership. Like the makeup of the conference itself, this increase attests to the growing international profile of the BFE and its increasingly vital role in developing young scholars. Beginning in 2011, Ethnomusicology Forum will be published three times a year in order to accommodate the growing number of excellent submissions. During the meeting, Katherine Brown was voted in as an elected member of the committee in a landslide victory, and Tom Wagner was elected as the new BFE student representative.

Steven Feld gave Saturday evening’s keynote speech. Feld guided the delegates along an acoustemological that began in Papua New Guinea’s rainforests during the 1970’s, wound through Balkan town streets resonating with the sounds of bells in the late 1990’s, and arrived in contemporary Ghana in time for the horn-honking funeral rituals of the La Drivers Union Por Por Group. In doing so, Professor Feld challenged ethnomusicologists to adopt a broader understanding of sound and the knowledge it communicates. If you ask any delegate at a BFE conference what his or her favorite part of a particular conference is, you are likely to be told about this or that interesting paper. But press a little more, and your interlocutor will probably confess that they most look forward to Saturday evening’s dinner and post-dinner party. This year was no exception, as delegates enjoyed the conference dinner in the historical St. John’s College Dining Hall, and (together with some locals) indulged in drinks, snooker, and a DJ, well into Sunday morning. As usual, the sight of academics “getting down” was, in itself, worth the registration fee! The combination of location, content, and people made this year’s conference a resounding success. Many excellent papers were presented, and with so many interesting and varied subjects and views on offer, it was impossible not to leave without some new, exciting “knowledge”. Equally important, it was an opportunity to reconnect with friends and colleagues from across the UK and the globe, people who at other times throughout the year exist only as disembodied voices and email attachments. The many enjoyable experiences afforded by this conference would not have been possible without the uncounted hours of hard work invested both before and during the conference by Martin Stokes and his team. They deserve considerable recognition for providing such a congenial and stimulating atmosphere. I am sure we all look forward to more of the same at next year’s conference, which will be hosted by Trevor Wiggins at University College Falmouth.