Music Graduate Colloquium: Ruth Wright

Presented by Graduate Studies in Music, the Don Wright Faculty of Music Graduate Colloquium series includes lectures by distinguished guests, Western faculty members, and senior graduate students on all fields of research and creative activity in music.

Ruth Wright (Western University)
“Is Gramsci Dead? Revisiting Hegemony in Twenty-First Century Music Education”

Abstract:
In this paper the author asks “Is Gramsci dead in the context of 21st century music education?” Three further questions are considered to help come to a conclusion on this main question: first, whether and if so, how, music education as a discipline has adapted to social changes? Second, what forms of resistance it has produced and might yet produce? and third, what innovations it might yield? They are considered in the light of Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, the ideas presented in Small’s (1977) work Music, Society, Education and Day’s refutation of Gramsci and the ‘hegemony of hegemony’. It is suggested that anarchist social theory may offer some useful routes of resistance to the hegemonic effects of neoliberal educational policy on music education and offer some slight potential for Small’s ideas still to become a reality at a future date.

All Colloquium series events take place on selected Fridays in Talbot College 101 at 3:30 pm. (unless otherwise noted). Admission is free, and all are welcome to attend!