Free Floater Research Group: Music, Conflict and the State

Research Group Music, Conflict and the State

PLEASE NOTE: THE RESEARCH GROUP "MUSIC, CONFLICT AND THE STATE" WILL BE DISBANDED IN ITS PRESENT FORM IN APRIL 2014 AND THESE PAGES WILL NOT BE MAINTAINED AFTER THIS POINT.



The Free Floater junior research group “Music, Conflict and the State” promotes and conducts research into the role(s) of music in promoting, facilitating and perpetuating violent responses to conflicts between social groups and communities, including inter- and intrastate wars.

Through detailed analyses of individual examples from a number of historical epochs and global cultures, the group hopes to develop a musicological perspective on the dynamics of armed and violent conflict, and how music may play a role in regulating but also intensifying such conflicts.


Current focuses of our work include:

• The use of music to advocate or incite hatred and violence
• The use of children as musicians in military and paramilitary organisations, and the role of music in the life of child soldiers
• Music and missionary work in the context of colonialism and colonial wars
• The use of music in connection with torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment.

The group works closely with a number of national and international partners to further promote work on these and closely related topics.