Athens, Ga. – The Institute for Women’s Studies at the University of Georgia is hosting its second annual conference, Women, Rock! and Politics, from Friday, May 30 to Saturday, May 31.
This year’s conference brings together a great range of talks, images, and performances concerning the relationships among women and popular music, especially rock music.
The conference will begin on Friday at 4:30 p.m. with a reception and presentations in Edge Hall at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music on the UGA campus. The evening will feature an opening performance by keynote speaker Gretchen Phillips and presentations by renowned scholar Fred Maus, associate professor of music theory at the University of Virginia, on the women of the B-52s; and the Girls Rock Camps Collective on “Creativity, Community and Confidence through Rock & Roll: Girls Rock Camps.”
Saturday’s portion of the conference will be at Tasty World in downtown Athens, starting with lunch at noon and will feature panels on women in hip hop, women’s experimental music, the Riot Grrl movement, and women in rock in Latin America. The conference will conclude with a keynote talk and performance by Gretchen Phillips at 6 p.m. For a full program please visit www.uga.edu/iws.
Keynote speaker and performer Gretchen Phillips was a central figure in lesbian rock music of the 1980s, resulting from her formation of two “lezzie rock” bands-Girls in the Nose and Two Nice Girls-in 1985. Gretchen’s recent music experiments have emerged out of the newly formed band, Phillips & Driver, characterized by guitar sounds that range from a country twang to atmospheric pulses and screeches; melodious vocals that address topics of love and war in unconventional ways; and diverse moods signified by contrasting tempos and textures.
These events are free and open to the public. Edge Hall is located in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, 3rd floor, at 250 River Rd. on the eastside of campus. Tasty World is located at 312 East Broad Street in downtown Athens. For more information, contact the Institute for Women’s Studies at 706/542-2846.