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CfA: Confronting Musical Diversity in Western and Central Eurasian Empires during the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, 24-25.09.2026

24–25 September 2026, Max Weber Stiftung – Georgia Branch Office, Tbilisi

Deadline: 15 May 2026

Convener: Jonas Löffler (Max Weber Netzwerk Osteuropa)

Ashugh Jivani – the violin player (Charents Museum of Literature and Art)

Throughout the history of empires, music has been an object and an instrument of both identity formation and imperial rule. At the same time, empires have been home to a particularly great diversity of musical styles and actors that mirrored the social and ethnic diversity of their population. Concentrating on the Habsburg, Ottoman, Russian, and Qajar Empires, four empires covering the large, but contiguous continental space of (North-)Western and Central Eurasia during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this workshop aims to bring together scholarship on the various ways in which musical diversity was dealt with in these empires.

By comparing specific instances of imperial interactions with musical diversity, the workshop will address overarching questions of the various functions of music in globally entangled modernization processes, its uses in specific and general contexts of imperial and colonial rule, and emerging national movements, as well as its embeddedness in globalizing capitalist networks.

Possible contributions include, but are not limited to, the following fields:

  • Mapping, studying, representing the musical diversity of empires
  • Western Art Music as a means of imperial “civilizing” processes
  • The “globalization” of Western art music as an imperial/colonial phenomenon
  • The construction of “national” musical folklore traditions
  • Urban spaces as hubs of musical diversity
  • Policing/Criminalization of (urban) music making
  • Recording Companies as (inter-)imperial actors
  • Commercialization of musical diversity
  • Universal and musical exhibitions
  • Music and the military/Music and conflict
  • Diplomats and travellers as observers of musical diversity

The organizers will cover costs for travel (airfare up to a maximum amount) and accommodation.

Proposals should be a single PDF-file, including name, affiliation, title of the presentation, and abstract (approximately 300 words), as well as a short biographical note, and should be submitted as a single PDF file to MWS Georgia info@mws-georgia.org by 15 May 2026.

Participants will be notified until the end of May.

=> Find full CfA here

Nino Tsertsvadze
Nino Tsertsvadze

OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Nino Tsertsvadze (April 15, 2026). CfA: Confronting Musical Diversity in Western and Central Eurasian Empires during the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, 24-25.09.2026. Max Weber Stiftung - Büro Georgien. Retrieved June 18, 2026 from https://mwsgeorgien.hypotheses.org/10257


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