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Call for Provocations – ‘Sounds of Climate Justice’ Study Day
Study day: February 24 2026
Deadline for provocations: January 16 2026
Decisions communicated / programme finalised: 30 January 2026
Location: University of Southampton
The Southampton Centre for Music Education and Social Justice (CMESJ) is pleased to announce a Study Day on ‘Sounds of Climate Justice’ on Tuesday 24 February 2026. We invite submissions for provocations of c.10 minutes relating to any intersectional reflections about / musical responses to the challenges of the climate crisis, and interventions that music studies can make in the pursuit of climate justice. This will be an in-person study day, although virtual or pre-recorded presentations can be accommodated.
The day will be a mix of academic presentations, musical performances and workshops with time to reflect. There will be space and time for participants to also co-construct and outline principles of a manifesto for music studies on committing, musically and/or musicologically, to sustainable futures of scholarship, practice and curricular design. Undergraduate and postgraduate student voices are very welcome.
The Keynote will be a performance of an interactive piece composed by Jenny Guilford and Ellan A. Lincoln-Hyde:
Climate of the Bells is an outdoor, site-responsive keynote composition that traces a ‘year of birdsong’ from Southampton, performed through artefacts drawn from university, public, and private collections, including hand bells and repurposed industrial materials. As the piece unfolds, audiences move through the space, encountering seasonal songs and maritime resonances in a multispecies soundscape. The work foregrounds ecological rhythms, collective care, and interspecies attunement, transforming listening into an immersive, participatory experience. Composers: Jenny Guilford and Ellan A. Lincoln-Hyde, jointly The (In)Equal Temperament Project.
Submitting a provocation: please email a c.100-word abstract / outline of your short provocation (spoken / musical / performed) to Erin Johnson-Williams at e.johnson-williams@soton.ac.uk by 16 January 2026. Each provocation will be given a 10-minute slot, with ample time given to discussion.
What we mean by provocation: As the convenors, we define an academic provocation as something that makes us stop and think more deeply about an idea or issue. It should be designed to challenge our usual ways of understanding and to open new perspectives. Provocations can take many forms (a bold question, a surprising image, a short text or performance, for example) to spark curiosity and discussion. These provocations will be used to help us explore ideas with an emphasis on sharing and discussion.
Organising Committee
Erin Johnson-Williams (University of Southampton)
Chiying Lam (University of Southampton)
Ellan A. Lincoln-Hyde (SOAS University of London)
Lawrence Davies (University of Huddersfield)
Amy Williamson (University of Southampton)
Past events
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Misogyny in Music Study DayFollowing a successful roundtable discussion about the Misogyny in Music Report at the University of Southampton in May 2024, we hosted our annual music education policy ‘study day.’ This explored the strategies, challenges and pathways for embedding the recommendations of the Misogyny in Music Report into UK Higher Education institutions.
Representatives from Public Policy Southampton attended the event and provided reflections on fostering policy-driven dialogues. Rt Hon Caroline Nokes, MP, who chaired the Women and Equalities Committee that put together the Misogyny in Music Report, hosted a Q&A.
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Mini-Hartley - Gavin Williams - ‘Arts of Extraction: Oil, Digital Audio and Geo-Histories of Sound’On October 23, we hosted Gavin Williams for a Hartley research seminar.
We explored the convergence, since the Second World War, between seismic survey and oil industries in which dynamite and air gun explosions have become standard ways of sounding the earth’s strata. We looked at the history of mathematics, computing, and spectrographic analysis, and considered the effects of underwater blasts on marine life, and it will track the implications for early digital audio.
In particular, we focused on efforts to clean up shellac discs using digital techniques borrowed from the analysis of seismic recordings in search of oil. We wanted to evaluate the extent to which sonic practices of oil extraction have bled into auditory and musical cultures more broadly, and vice versa, as well as the extent to which both oil and music register capitalism’s framing of the earth in extractible terms.
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Hartley Residency: Reena EsmailOn October 16 2024, we hosted Reena Esmail for our latest Hartley residency.
Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music. A resident of Los Angeles,
Esmail is the 20-25 Swan Family Artist in Residence with Los Angeles Master Chorale, and was the 20-21 Composer in Residence with Seattle Symphony. She is a Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural music connecting musical traditions of India and the West.