皇家华人

About the event

In times of widening economic inequality, encroaching climate crisis, rising fascism, and the horrors of war - extreme metal music has emerged as a vital site of political engagement and resistance. Over the last decade or so, the field of extreme metal (death and black metal, doom and sludge, industrial, and noise, etc) has demonstrated a renewed sense of diversity, inclusion, and political consciousness, especially from left-wing, antifascist/antiracist/anticapitalist positions across the globe. The political anger and anti-authoritarian impulse animating metal since its beginnings (Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Napalm Death, Sepultura) is now undergoing a renaissance, opening up exciting new pathways for activism and solidarity.

Ultimate Outsider Genre: Metal, Diversity, Activism is an interdisciplinary conference bringing together scholars, writers, and musicians, for a day of dialogue on how extreme metal music is meeting today鈥檚 world on fire. From a variety of perspectives (from feminist/queer theory to environmentalism, sociology to aesthetics, activism and community-building) we will discuss and strategize how extreme metal can be a vehicle for raising consciousness and creating social change, towards a politics of inclusion, care, and anticapitalist futures.

This conference is convened by听Dr Riitta Valijarvi, Associate Professor (Teaching) at听UCL SSEES and independent scholar and a metal journalist听Daniel Lukes (co-editor of听).

Information about panels, industry partners, and evening activities to follow. The event will be in person, with the option of joining remotely.听

Please contact Daniel Lukes (daniel.lukes@gmail.com) and Riitta Valijarvi (r.valijarvi@ucl.ac.uk) if you would like to be involved!

Schedule

1:00pm: Welcome听

1:15-2:45pm: Panel 1 - Analysis (scroll down for speaker list)

3:00-4:30pm: Panel 2 - Practices and Strategies (scroll down)

4:45-5:15pm: Book Presentation -听Black Metal Rainbows听(edited by Daniel Lukes [presenting] and Stanimir Panoyotov [presenting], designed by Jaci Raia)听+ Heavy Metal and Disability - Crips, Crowds, and Cacophonies听(edited by Jasmine Hazel Shadrack [presenting] and Keith Kahn-Harris)

5:30-6:30pm: Keynote - Patricia MacCormack: 鈥淨ueer Cunt Chaos Black Magick Contra Nationalist Pseudo Occultism"

6:30-7:00pm: Wrap-up

Panel 1 - Analysis

Kayley Whalen, University of California Davis, 鈥淗eathen Pilgrimages: Women and Nonbinary People Finding Spiritual Belonging within Black Metal and Dark Folk鈥�

Frankie Stevens, Falmouth University, 鈥淲omen鈥檚 Rescription in Metal鈥檚 Past, Present & Future: (Re)writing Metal Canons and Histories鈥�

Charlotte Doesburg, University of Oxford, 鈥溾�榃hen You Hide Your Own roots鈥� 鈥� Metal Music from Finnish and Russian Karelia鈥�

Claire McGee, Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, 鈥淩epresenting Marock: A Study of Visual and Material Culture, Identity Formation and Community-Building in Botswana鈥�

Adam Christopher Jones, Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Acid Horizon, 鈥淲aiting for Ormag枚den: Utopia and Heavy Metal Fantasy鈥�

Luigi Monteanni, School of Oriental and African Studies, 鈥淢ineral Entrails: Phono-Material Ecologies of the Sound-As-Physical-Assault Continuum鈥�

David Burke, Bath Spa University, 鈥淢etal and Negative Universality鈥�

Panel 2 - Practices and Strategies

Melissa Arkley, University of Huddersfield, "Being the Metal Feminist Killjoy: Feminist Activism and Affective Disruption in Extreme Metal"

Emma Wilkes, Freelance Journalist, 鈥淪ound and Fury: How Metal's Diversification is Shaping the Sounds of Its Future鈥�

Lily Kahn, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UCL, 鈥淢etal, Yiddish, and Language Revitalisation鈥�

Holly Royle, University of Chester, Disconnected Souls, Deviate PR, 鈥溾�楨nd the Hierarchy, Kill the Boys Club鈥�: How Quotas Can Improve In/Visible Representation in Heavy Metal Subculture鈥�

Arianna Mahsayeh, Cellist and Activist, 鈥淯sually the Only Brown Woman in the Room鈥�

T. Coles, Author and Journalist, "Gender Is About the Roles You Don't Play鈥�

Owen Coggins, Brunel University London, 鈥淚s It fash? Is [X] Sketch? Noisy Politics Beyond Words and Beliefs

Thomas Cardwell, University of the Arts London, 鈥淒isplays of Resistance? Clothing, Customisation and Protest in Metal Subcultures鈥�

Presenters and convenors

This conference is supported by听qUCL, UCL's听听university-wide initiative that brings together UCL staff and students with research and teaching interests in LGBTQ studies, gender and sexuality studies, queer theory and related fields. Find out about qUCL听here.听

Further support is provided by UCL Music Futures, the听initiative dedicated to thinking, writing and performing music, jointly hosted by the UCL European Institute and the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, with support from UCL Grand Challenges. Read about 皇家华人 Music Futures听here.听

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Image: Collage of Black Kaleidoscope, by听Ry Cunningham, with permission