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Sound, trauma and politics in the Middle East

Group of people sitting in a semi-circle listening to workshop facilitators Mark Levina and Maria Malmström
Photo by Miguel Buenrostro, Listening Academy participant

CMES researchers Maria Malmström and Mark Levine facilitated a workshop on sound, trauma and politics in the Middle East during the week-long experimental Listening Academy workshop in July 2021.

The Listening Academy was organized as part of the Listening Biennial, an international exhibition and event program presented at Errant Sound in Berlin during the summer of 2021. The Listening Academy provided a collaborative space for an international group of artists, practitioners, scholars, organizers and educators to share knowledge, present work and engage in critical, creative and speculative discussions. 

Logo for the Listening Biennial

The goal of the Biennial was to pose questions and experience of listening. It was conceived as a global project, aiming at a curatorial construct of shared resonances and polyvocal manifestations. It included an exhibition of audio works, experimental performances, workshops and discursive events presented across a constellation of collaborating institutions, organizations, and venues, where listening and locality are accentuated, and cultural specificities contributed to a greater ecology of attention. 

Together with Ulrika Trovalla and Eric Trovalla, Mark and Maria conduct research on Egypt and Nigeria within the collaborative project "The Materiality of Suspicion and the Ambiguity of the Familiar", funded by FORMAS. Read more about the project on its CMES research page.

In 2018, Maria initiated the research project "Making and Unmaking Masculinities and Religious Identities through the Politics of the Ear in Egypt", funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. Read more about the project on its CMES research page.

Maria's staff page

Mark's staff page