Horizons of Punk: Punk-Rock Scholarship and its Methodologies

A Collaboration Between Gustave Eiffel University (Laboratoire LISAA) and Punk Scholars Network UK & South Korea

When: Friday 9th June 2023
Where: Auditorium, Georges Perec Library, Gustave Eiffel University, France

Organized by Sangheon Lee (Gustave Eiffel University) and Grace Healy (University of Huddersfield)
Scientific committee: Russ Bestley, Kevin Dahan, Mike Dines, Guillaume Dupetit, and Martin Laliberté

Keynote: Bernhard Steinbrecher, Musicologist (popular music aesthetics, practices, and discourses), Senior Scientist at the University of Innsbruck (Austria), and IASPM Membership Secretary

Special Interview: Hervé Zénouda, musician (active as a drummer in the first french punk scene (1976-1979)), composer and producer in experimental music, researcher (maître de conférence) in digital communication at the University of Toulon (France)

“The horizon is the range of vision that includes everything that can be seen from a particular vantage point […] A person who has no horizon is a man who does not see far enough and hence overvalues what is nearest to him. On the other hand, ‘to have a horizon’ means not being limited to what is nearby, but to being able to see beyond it.” (Gadamer, Truth and Method).

What are the horizons of punk-rock? What are the horizons of punk-rock scholarship? How are these horizons defined, and how do they operate in punk music, culture, and scholarship? As they evolve through time, history, and geography, what commonalities and contradictions emerge?

Punk-rock is an established area of research in (Western) subcultural studies and has historically been interpreted at the intersection between socio-political resistance and popular culture. In recent years, interdisciplinary work has led to examinations of punk through various lenses: the Global Punk series, for example, focusses on the development of contemporary punk ‘scenes’, reflecting on punk origins, aesthetics, legacy, identity, and circulation. Critical interdisciplinary approaches have emerged within punk scholarship, drawing on sociology, cultural studies, musicology, and philosophy to broaden the horizons of punk. Moreover, tensions between academic studies and personal histories have led to an increasing scholarly interest in documenting local scenes and local subcultural histories. Despite these developments many questions remain on the boundaries of punk: Has punk scholarship formed its own methodologies? Has it established its own field? What relation does it have (or should it have) with the boundaries of pop/rock musicology in general? In what disciplines, and to what extent, can we extend our perspectives on punk? What ‘new’ methodological approaches can be envisioned from interdisciplinary work, and what ‘old’ perspectives can be revisioned?

Punk Scholars Network UK & South Korea and Laboratoire Littératures, Savoirs et Arts (LISAA, Gustave Eiffel University, France) are seeking to hold an international conference that explores, examines, and critically engages with the boundaries of punk scholarship from a range of methodological perspectives. We are seeking contributions from a range of disciplines that critically engage with the boundaries of current punk scholarship. In particular, we are interested in those contributions which examine the commonalities and contradictions between the following fields and punk studies:

• Musicology
• Spirituality / religion/ theology
• Gender, race, sexuality, disability, class, etc
• Philosophy / phenomenology
• Psychoanalytic studies / psychology
• Ethnography: considerations of scene/space and borders
• Anthropology
• Education (pedagogy)
• Literature
• Aesthetics: fashion, style, visual studies, art history
• Film and media studies: incl. globalisation of new media, communications, social networking, internet

If you wish to take part, please submit your proposals to both sangheonlee76@gmail.com and healygrace43@gmail.com by 25th March 2023. Proposals should be 350 words maximum (or equivalent, 3 minutes if a video clip, for example). Conference language will be English.