Music in and for a Mobile World: Home, Place, and Memory in the Context of Migration and Displacement

Much practical knowledge resides in places of higher education where it has been accumulated by performers and scholars who have institutional access to both infrastructure and networking. While access to this kind of knowledge is a privilege that asylum seekers and refugees seldom possess, harsh real-life experience (e.g., forced migration) is usually something that academics lack. We must therefore ask: How can we bring these two realms into a productive relationship? In particular, is it possible to generate knowledge in an equal partnership and, if so, how? By jointly presenting our collaborative work, we hope to demonstrate how researchers’ advocacy can benefit lesser privileged artists without falling into the trap of paternalism. Combining an artistic and a theoretical approach, we will address both mobility and location as essential components of musical identity construction. Of particular interest is the construction and performance of a sense of home, place, and memory in the context of migration and displacement.