12th – 19th December 2020
A virtual, online, global conference spanning eight days is being brought together by the Punk Scholars Network – be a part of it.
Punk is a truly global phenomenon that manifests in myriad ways in different scenes, political regimes, cultural contexts and individual experiences. Punk is many things to many people and seldom remains static over a lifetime. Increased globalisation, changes in connectivity and technology, and shifts in both capitalism and populism have impacted punk for better and worse. International and intranational punk scenes and connections are growing and finding commonality and conflict through music, education, mutual aid, performance, political activism and human behaviours. The global Coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the differences people face accessing resources and how governments respond. How have, and how will, various local punk scenes respond to this crisis, and what does their response tell us about punk as a global phenomenon?
The current Punk Scholars Network series Global Punk has attempted to capture the spread and variance of punk across the world (Bestley, Dines, Gordon & Guerra 2019, 2020; Bestley, Dines, Gordon, Grimes & Guerra 2021). Gabriel Kuhn’s (2019) work on Straight Edge punk experiences has been based upon interviews with straight edge punks around the world, exploring different aspects of their experiences, attitudes, and activism. The journal Punk & Post-Punk regularly features contributions from punk scholars in a variety of geographical locations and settings. With these efforts, and others, serving as a base we are seeking to hold an entirely virtual conference that explores, examines and critically engages with punk scholars around the globe. Each PSN region will be responsible for one day over an eight day period and will include some academic papers or panels responding to this call for papers.
Taking global punk seriously as a theme means considering the variety of experiences within local, national and international punk communities. This conference takes place against the backdrop of increased political authoritarianism and a noticeable rise in racial and religious intolerance across the world more generally, and under the guise of responses to the global pandemic more specifically. We must consider what impact these issues have – good and bad – on punk scenes and individuals. To do this together, we are asking to what extent is punk a helpful means or a hindrance in considering identity and ‘being’ within wider social problems, dynamics, and understandings?
In line with the broad view being taken on the theme of global punk and in keeping with the PSN’s wide ranging academic reach, we are seeking contributions from a range of interdisciplinary areas, including, but not limited to: cultural studies, musicology, ethnography, art and design, humanities, performing arts, and the social sciences. Papers and panels could cover the following themes, (list is by no means exhaustive):
Globalisation of new media, communications, social networking, internet
Ethnographic considerations of scene/space and borders
Political appropriation: re-definitions of ‘anarchism’, ‘ecology’ and anti-authoritarianism
What role does exogenous and endogenous appropriation have in punk politics, resistance and allegiance around the world?
In what ways does gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality, disability, class, religious beliefs, and cultural norms shape punk around the world?
Notion of local/national/international ‘scene’, tribes, counterculture/subculture
Importation and exportation of punk as a commodity, statement, academic discourse
Music and the performer: creativity, authorship, identity, problems with definition, crossing musical boundaries.
Reception: DIY culture, activism.
Lifestyle: crustpunk, squatter, vegetarianism, animal rights, straight edge etc within different cultural contexts.
The art of punk: record covers and associated graphic styles.
Punk Scholars Network events and conferences usually mix the conventionally “scholarly” with the more informal or “organic” intellectualism which punks often display. We therefore invite proposals of a non-standard type, including films, performances, Q and As with punks or punk performers and other creative mediums. In other words, you are welcomed and wanted to be a part of this global conference so please don’t worry if you’ve never set foot in a university.
It is intended that this will be an online conference spanning eight days, from December 12th until December 19th 2020 inclusive. Each region with a PSN affiliate is responsible for programming one day. The planned schedule is as follows:
Saturday 12th December: PSN France
Sunday 13th December: PSN UK and rest of EU
Monday 14th December: PSN Australia/Aotearoa (NZ)
Tuesday 15th December: PSN Indonesia
Wednesday 16th December: PSN USA
Thursday 17th December: PSN Iberia
Friday 18th December: PSN EU and UK
Saturday 19th December: PSN Colombia
The affiliates will put together a mixed programme for their day based on a mixture of submissions and connections with local punk scenes. If you wish to take part, please submit your proposal to the relevant affiliate, if there is not one in your immediate geographical region then please submit it to the affiliate that aligns with your time zone for ease of inclusion. Proposals should be 350 words maximum (or equivalent, 3 minutes if a video clip for example) and do not have to be in English, please feel that you can use the language of your region if you wish. Proposals should be submitted to the following affiliated branches of the Punk Scholars Network:
Australia and Aotearoa (NZ), proposals to samantha.bennett@anu.edu.au
Colombia, proposals to punkscholarsnetworkcolombia@gmail.com
UK and the rest of Europe, proposals to psnconference2020@gmail.com (we can support proposals/presentations in French or German and will try to support other languages if we can)
Iberia, proposals to punkscholarsnetworkiberia@gmail.com
Indonesia, proposals to psnindonesia15@gmail.com
USA and Canada, proposals to punkscholarsusa@gmail.com
by 30th September 2020 for consideration.
Successful submissions will be notified by 15th October 2020, all submissions will be responded to by 28th October 2020.