Music & Lifetime Memories: An Interdisciplinary Conference
Call for Papers now open
Dates: Friday 1st November – Saturday 2nd November, 2019
Location: Durham University, Durham, UK
Lead organiser: Dr. Kelly Jakubowski
Funding: Leverhulme Trust
No registration fee will be charged for this event
With Featured Lectures by Prof. Andrea Halpern (Bucknell University, USA), Dr. Alexandra Lamont (Keele University, UK), & Prof. Catherine Loveday (University of Westminster, UK)
Listening to music can trigger vivid lifetime memories, bringing one back to the sights, sounds, and feelings of past events. Music is often intimately associated with self-defining moments from our lives, and can play a significant role in shaping a person’s identity. Research on the link between music and autobiographical memories is crucial for critically assessing the validity of claims about the “power of music,” informing theoretical accounts of the mechanisms by which music induces emotions, and developing music-based interventions for people with memory disorders
This conference aims to bring together researchers from music, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, and other relevant disciplines to address the relationship between music and autobiographical memory, including, but not limited to, the following themes:
-How and why does music become linked to lifetime memories?
-How do music and personal memories interact in shaping one’s identity and self-concept?
-What role does music play in the maintenance and retrieval of memories?
-How does music relate to notions of collective memory and cultural transmission?
-What role do cultural practices play in shaping the link between music and memories?
-Can music be an effective cue for autobiographical memories in populations in which memory function has otherwise been compromised?
Call for contributions: Submissions for oral research presentations (approx. 20 minutes in duration) are now being accepted. To be considered for participation, please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words in length. Both empirical and theoretical contributions will be considered, provided the link to music and lifetime memories is clear. To submit, please send your abstract, formatted using the Abstract Template (available on our website) by email to the Organising Committee at
music.memories2019@xxxxxxxxx.
A limited number of Conference Awards will be available from SEMPRE for students and unwaged delegates to cover travel and accommodation.
Deadline for abstract submission: 15 May 2019
Notification of acceptance by: 30 June 2019