In this session, members of the Study Group on Childhood and Youth will examine how normative (adult) power structures, priorities, and fears have shaped, limited, devalued, or appropriated children. Music has been used to encourage the "authentic" voice of the child – the "infant" (Lat. "voiceless one") – and it has also been used to silence it. Through our research we have the opportunity to speak up for young people and enable them to speak for themselves, arguing for equity in music scholarship and society, in history and in the present. 

Presentations will be seven minutes long, followed by seven-minute responses. Presentations will be pre-circulated to registered attendees. 

Session Chairs: Matthew Roy, Westmont College

1. Benjamin Liberatore, Columbia University: Nothing Is Snipped Out': Cathedral Choristers' Reflections on Choral Worship in Pandemic Times

Respondent: Susan Boynton, Columbia University

2. Matthew Roy, Westmont College: The Socializing Mirror: Performing Nineteenth-Century Girlhood and Boyhood

Respondent: Roe-Min Kok, McGill University

3. Alexandra Krawetz, Yale University: "Charming Simple Songs of Children": Negotiating Child Agency, Authority, and Authorial Voice in the Interwar Archives

Respondent: Anicia Timberlake, Peabody Institute

4. Demetrius Shahmehri, Columbia University: "Won't you play along?" Music, Memory, and the Voice of the Child in Undertale"

 Respondent: Tyler Bickford, University of Pittsburgh

5. Lindsay Wright, University of Chicago: Race to the Beginning: Musical Prodigies and the Racialization of Early Musical Achievement

 Respondent: Matthew Roy, Westmont College

6. Cristina Santos, Chad Komocki, Lilith Manes, and Marcelo Rocha, University of Texas at Austin: Reflective Rhythms: Exploring How the Intersection of the Digital Humanities and Creative Learning Can Promote Equitable Scholastic Collaborations with Youth