Conference: Theorizing Trauma and Disability in the Arts

 

A graphic that reads Theorizing Trauma and Disability in the Arts.
Theorizing Trauma and Disability in the Arts: A Conference<br /> October 16-19, 2025<br />
Theorizing Trauma and Disability in the Arts: A Conference
October 16-19, 2025

The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and the Center for Musical Humanities present a four-day event exploring different perspectives on trauma and disabilities in the arts. Free and open to the public, the conference will feature musical performances, art installations, panel discussions and audience interaction.

This program is sponsored by the UCLA Center for Musical Humanities, the Dean of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music Associate Dean of Inclusive Excellence, by the Walter H. Rubsamen Music Library and the UCLA Music Library’s Hugo and Christine Davise Fund.

This program is made possible by the Joyce S and Robert U. Nelson Fund. Robert Uriel Nelson was a revered musicologist and music professor at UCLA, who, together with his wife, established a generous endowment for the university to make programs like this possible.

Guest Artist Maria Chávez
Guest Artist Maria Chávez
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Lani Hall

Opening Concert: LISTENING TO TRAUMA AND DISABILITY

FEATURING MARIA CHAVEZ, TURNTABLE ARTIST

5pm-6pm: OPEN GALLERY WALK in Schoenberg Music Building- Installations

The La Monte Young Malibu Barbie Dreamhouse
Jenny Olivia Johnson & Ashley Dao
Located on the Ground Floor outside Imagination Hall

CLOUDS OF XENAKIS (a sound drawing of stochastic trauma in 80 channels)
Jenny Olivia Johnson and Daniela Rivera (2025)
Located outside the Music Library

6pm: Lecture-Demos in Lani Hall

Space at the Table
Art Banymandhub

“OCD” and “Attention: A Compositional Deficit” from Neuro 
Sayuva
Soprano Soloist: Maddy Chamberlain
Soprano: Laur Trustee
Alto: Brazier Pierce, Annie Qu
Tenor: Mark Tu, Sam Song
Bass: Luke Pirruccello, Sayuva

Talus
Wendy Richman, viola
Ken Ueno, live electronics

Conversation and Concert

Maria Chávez

Reception in Green Room

Jill Rogers, keynote speaker
Jill Rogers, keynote speaker
Friday, October 17, 2025
Lani Hall

11:30am – 12:30pm — Coffee and Tea in Green Room, Pick up Name Badges

12:30pm – 12:45pm — Opening Remarks

12:45pm – 2:15pm — THEORIZING ASD, ADHD, AND SENSORY DISORDERS (Michael Beckerman, Chair)

  • Aziel Ressler, Acetaminophen-American
  • Dan Wang, Attentional Form: Mediacy, ADHD, and Tierra Whack’s Whack World
  • Jessica Schwartz, Neural Paving in Fits and Coughs: The Rise of Speed (Rock) Culture in Smog City (ca. 1980)

2:30pm – 4:00pm — VOCAL PEDAGOGY PANEL (presented virtually in Lani)

  • Katherine Meizel
  • Anne Slovin (in person)
  • Emily Jaworski Koriath
  • Adam Moxness
  • Diane Kolin
  • Maria Georgakarakou
  • Marita Stryker

4:30pm – 6:15pm — Keynote Session: Jill Rogers

Reception in Green Room

Saturday, October 18, 2025
Lani Hall

8:30am – 11am — Coffee and Tea in Green Room, Pick up Name Badges

9am – 11am — Deep Listening© Workshop with Nomi Epstein in the Recording Studio (Space limited to 20 participants. First come, first served. No Livestream.)

11am – 12:30pm — MUSICAL THEATER AND TRAUMA PANEL (Holley Replogle-Wong, Chair)

  • Jessica Sternfeld
  • Ray Knapp
  • Judith Moreland
  • Student Performers from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, with Dan Belzer, collaborative pianist
    • Maisie McPeek, “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables 
    • Ian Pirotto, “Who I Was” from Bandstand
    • Mireya Nevel, “Me & Ricky” from Theory of Relativity
    • Nick Alcorn, “I’ve Been” from Next to Normal

Lunch option in Green Room for Conference Presenters

2pm – 3:30pm  —  DISABILITY, TRAUMA, AND HISTORICAL CONCERNS 

  • Erin Brooks, Listening Historically? Trauma, Disability, and Sound in America’s Midcentury Polio Epidemic
  • Luka Douridas, Escape, Exposure, and Release: Theorizing Genre Formation as Trauma Response
  • Sara Gerk, The Emigrant’s Lament: Immigration Trauma and US Popular Music in the Nineteenth Century

4pm – 5:30pm — TRAUMA AND DISABILITY IN MUSIC SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTIONS (Jill Rogers, Chair)

  • Nicol Hammond, Trying to hear the music over the alarm bells: Learning how to be an academic with PTSD
  • Natalie Farrell, Toward a Popular Symphony: Confronting Trauma and Profiteering in Orchestral Community Outreach Programs (No Livestream)
  • Phyllis Pan, Developing Artistic Confidence Through Score Mapping: Creative Strategies for Efficient Learning, Memory, and Performance

 

Sunday, October 19, 2025
Lani Hall

8:30am — Coffee and Tea in Green Room

9am – 10:30am — CLOSE READINGS OF TRAUMA REPRESENTATIONS IN ART (Ashley Dao, Chair)

  • Emmie Head, The Cinesthetic Chef: Sonic Markers of Trauma and Memory in the Soundscapes of FX’s The Bear
  • James Deaville, Music, Race, and the Disabled City:  Representing Trauma and Restoration in the New Orleans of Treme
  • Molly Hennig, The Dialectic of Trauma Heard in the Testimony of Lingua Ignota’s Sinner Get Ready (2021) and Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers (2022)

10:45am – 12:15pm — TRAUMA AND DISABILITY:  SLIPPAGES AND OVERLAPS (Jenny Olivia Johnson, Chair)

  • HyunJeong Hwang, Performance Possibilities in Contemporary Korean and Japanese Piano Works Addressing Trauma and Cultural Identity
  • Kaleb E. Goldschmitt, Trauma, Disability, or Both? The Case of Sonic Sensitivity in Popular Media
  • Maria Cizmic, On Bodies and Narratives: Complex Embodiment, Psychiatric Disability, and the Music of Daniel Johnson

12:15pm – Lunch for Conference Presenters in Green Room

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