“Music of Conflict and Reconciliation” is the theme of Syracuse University’s 2010-11 Ray Smith Symposium. Organized and presented by the Department of Art and Music Histories, in partnership with The SU Humanities Center, the symposium features symposia, seminars, and concerts built around four themes: “Power and Resistance in the Second World War” (September 14-15), “The War in Iraq” (November 14-16), “Refugees and Exile” (February 17-18), and “Reconstruction and Reconciliation” (March 24-25). The symposium is part of Syracuse Symposium, whose theme this year is “Conflict: Peace and War.”

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, call 315-443-4184. Both art and music histories and The SU Humanities Center are administered by SU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

“We will explore the theme of ‘conflict’ as it relates to music and society across a broad spectrum of experiences,” explains Theo Cateforis, co-organizer and assistant professor of art and music histories. “Illustrious guest scholars will cover a variety of topics, from music in modern-day Iraq to songs of reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda.” Other organizers are all associate professors in art and music histories: Carol Babiracki, Stephen Meyer, and Amanda Eubanks Winkler, who doubles as department chair. 

Gregg Lambert, Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and founding director of The SU Humanities Center, considers the “conflict” theme timely and relevant. “Whether understood as a scourge that marks the human condition or as a tragic necessity of human progress, conflict has always been a catalyst for humanistic inquiry into one of the most persistent features of society,” he writes.

The schedule is as follows:

Power and Resistance in the Second World War

Tuesday, September 14
Symposium on the music of Japanese internment camps and Nazi Germany with Deborah Wong (University of California, Riverside) and Pamela Potter (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
7:30 p.m.
Watson Theater, Watson Hall

Wednesday, September 15
Mini seminar with professors Wong and Potter
9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The SU Humanities Center Seminar Room (304), The Tolley Building

All-Shostakovich concert by the Eastman School of Music’s Eastend String Quartet
8 p.m.
Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building

Co-sponsors: Ray Smith Symposium; Department of Art and Music Histories; The Mellon Central New York Humanities Corridor, an Andrew W. Mellon initiative; and The SU Humanities Center



The War in Iraq

Sunday, November 14
Society for New Music Concert featuring Arab-American composer/performer Simon Shaheen, with etchings projected onstage by Spanish painter Francisco Goya
4:30 p.m.
Hendricks Chapel

Monday, November 15
Symposium on post-9/11 music, as well as music of the Iraqi war with Jonathan Pieslak (CUNY Graduate Center) and J. Martin Daughtry (New York University)
7:30 p.m.
Grant Auditorium, College of Law

Tuesday, November 16
Mini seminar with professors Pieslak and Daughtry
9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The SU Humanities Center Seminar Room (304), The Tolley Building

Co-sponsors: Ray Smith Symposium; Department of Art and Music Histories; Office of the University Arts Presenter; Society for New Music; Department of Religion; The Mellon Central New York Humanities Corridor, an Andrew W. Mellon Initiative; and The SU Humanities Center



Refugees and Exile

Thursday, February 17
Colloquium on the music of Afghanistan and Ghana with Michael Frishkopf (University of Alberta) and John Baily (University of London)
7:30 p.m.
Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building

Friday, February 18
Mini seminar with professors Frishkopf and Baily
9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The SU Humanities Center Seminar Room (304), The Tolley Building

Concert by John Baily, Afghani rubab, and Dibyarka Chatterjee, tabla
8 p.m.
Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building

"Refugees and Exiles" includes the screening of John Baily's award-winning documentary “Amir: An Afghan Refugee Musician's Life in Peshawar, Pakistan” (Royal Anthropological Institute, 1985) and the Syracuse Symposium Seminar "Music of the Middle East and West Asia," taught by Carol Babiracki in Spring 2011. Dates, times, and locations for both are TBA.

Co-sponsors: The South Asia Center, Department of Art and Music Histories, The College of Arts and Sciences Co-Curricular Fees, and The SU Humanities Center



Reconstruction and Reconciliation

Thursday, March 24
Symposium on music and activism in Kosova and Rwanda with Jane Sugarman (CUNY Graduate Center) and Gregory Barz (Vanderbilt University)
7:30 p.m.
Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building

Friday, March 25
Mini seminar with professors Sugarman and Barz
9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The SU Humanities Center Seminar Room (304), The Tolley Building

Concert by SU guitarist Ken Meyer, followed by a screening of “Inanga: An Instrument of Tradition in Rwanda”
8 p.m.
Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building

Co-Sponsors: Ray Smith Symposium, Department of Art and Music Histories, and The SU Humanities Center