Presentations

Papers given at conferences, symposia and research forums

‘“All those Things That Don’t Change”: Evocative Objects, Transformation and Continuity in Mary Chapin Carpenter’s Lockdown Projects’. IASPM UK/Ireland Conference, University of Liverpool, 31 August-2 September 2022.

‘Climates of Regret: Country Objects and Evocative Atmospheres in Taylor Swift’s Songs’. 21st IASPM International Conference, Daegu, Korea, 5-9 July 2022.

‘Songs, Objects and Life Writing’. Music for Girls online symposium, University of Leeds, 18 May 2022.

Keynote: ‘Revisiting Old Haunts in a Time of Lockdown:  Holiday Records, Virtuality and the Nostalgia Gap’, Urban Nostalgia: The Musical City in the 19th and 20th Centuries’, directed and organized by Lola San Martín Arbide (CRAL — EHESS), Online, 5–7 July 2020. Video

‘“This Is Our Grime”: Encounter, Strangeness and Translation as Responses to Lisbon’s Batida Scene’, IASPM UK & Ireland Conference, Online, 19 May-31 July 2020.

‘Tracks of Our Years: The Sonic Mapping of Lives’, Sonic Memory conference, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, 5 September 2019.

‘“You’ll Need a Good Companion for This Part of the Ride”: Navigating Bruce Springsteen’s Sonic Persona in the Born to Run Audiobook’, International Persona Studies conference, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, 25-26 June 2019.

‘Songs as Systems: Objects, Ecologies, Weather, Viruses’, Future Present: Current Practices in Pop Music Studies conference, Uppsala University, Sweden, 19-20 June 2018. Also presented at IASPM UK & Ireland Conference, Huddersfield, 3-5 September 2018 and at ELLAK International Conference, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, Korea, 13-15 December 2018.

‘Batida as Urban Sonic Encounter’, Iberian Sound Cultures symposium, Institute of Modern Languages Research, London, 1 June 2018.

‘From Sound Objects to Song Objects: Rethinking Sonic Materiality and Metaphor’, Rethinking Sound 2018 conference, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea, 30–31 March 2018. Longer version presented at Gloucestershire Philosophical Society, Cheltenham, 11 April 2018.

‘Pop Hearts Nonsense’ / ‘The Sound of Nonsense’. Delivered at research seminars at Newcastle University, Liverpool University and University College Cork, 2017.

‘Listed Buildings: Rock and Pop Stars as Icons of Age and Experience’, IASPM UK & Ireland Conference, Brighton, 8-10 September 2016.

‘A Blank Space Where You Write Your Name: Taylor Swift’s Early Late Voice’, EMP Pop Conference, Seattle, USA, 14-17 April 2016.

‘Be-bop-sh-boom-a-langa-langa-doo-wop: Pop’s Love of Nonsense’, Music Department Research Seminar, University of York, 27 January 2016.

‘“All You See Is Glory”: The Burden of Stardom and the Tragedy of Nina Simone’, IASPM Australia-New Zealand branch conference, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 4-6 December 2015.

‘Excavating “Coimbra”: Genealogy, Nostalgia, and the Material Life of a Portuguese Popular Song’, 18th biennial IASPM conference, Campinas, Brazil, 30 June 2015.

‘The Lure of Ephemera: Record Labels as Visual and Textual Icons’, One Century of Record Labels conference, Newcastle University, 6-7 November 2014.

Keynote: ‘Familiar Futures, Strange Pasts: Popular Music and the Art of Storytelling’ , SIBE-Sociedad de Etnomusicología conference, Cuenca (Spain), 23-25 October 2014.

‘Dead Voices: Phonography, Archaeology and Materiality’, Musical Materialities in the Digital Age conference, University of Sussex, 27-28 June 2014.

‘Won’t You Spare Me Over Til Another Year?: Age, Death and Deferral in Old-Time Music’, Music, Film and Media Research in Progress seminar, University of Sussex, 26 February 2014.

‘Plenary Discussion: Songs of/and Place’, ‘Singing Places’ symposium, University of Sussex, 22 November 2013.

‘A Dream Deferred: Nina Simone and the Work of Mourning’, Centre for American Studies research seminar, University of Sussex, 19 November 2013.

‘Listening to Europe: “Continental Records” in Britain’, IASPM International Conference, Universidad de Oviedo, Gijón, Spain, 24-28 June 2013.

‘“Across the Evening Sky”: Real and Anticipated Experience in Nina Simone’s Late Voice’, Gender, Musical Creativity and Age conference, University of Huddersfield, 6-7 October 2012.

‘“The Place of Meaning”: Sound, Sense and Politics in the Music of Robert Wyatt’, From Adele to Zeca Afonso: The Singer-Songwriter in Europe conference, University of Leeds, 13-14 September 2012.

‘“You Can’t Just Say ‘Words’”: Literary Voices in the Work of Robert Wyatt’, LitPop: Writing and Popular Music conference, Northumbria University, 24 June 2011.

‘Songs of Fate: Marceneiro’s Drooping Cadences, Morrissey’s Avenging Misery’ (co-presentation with Lars Iyer), ICMuS Research Forum, Newcastle University, 3 March 2010.

‘“Trago fado nos sentidos”: Witnessing and Testimony in Fado’, IASPM International Conference, University of Liverpool, 13-17 July 2009.

‘Fado’s Invisible Cities: Lisbon Sounded and Silenced’, Fado: Percursos e Perspectivas conference, Universidade Nova and Universidade Católica, Lisbon, 18-21 June 2008.

‘“Quem me dera lá morar”: City, Text and Trace in Fado Songs’, Música, Ciudades, Redes conference, Conservatorio Superior de Música de Salamanca, 6-9 March 2008.

‘When the music’s over…’, Third Philosophies of the Vernacular symposium, Newcastle University, 8 December 2007.

‘Late Voice / Posthumous Voice: Nina Simone and Jandek’ (co-presentation with Lars Iyer), ICMuS Research Forum, Newcastle University, 24 October 2007.

‘Tudo isto ainda é fado? Fado as Local and Global Practice’, BFE (British Forum for Ethnomusicology) Annual Conference, Newcastle University, 18-21 April 2007.

‘Hail, Hail Rock ‘n’ Roll: Interpellation, Identification and Ideological Transference in Popular Music’, First Philosophies of the Vernacular symposium, Newcastle University, 25 November 2006.