Harmony and Dissonance: the 17th Annual Interdisciplinary Colloquium
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
The beauty of harmony and collaboration is their ability to harness dissonance in the service of peace and agreement. This idea rings especially true in a present reality marked as much by conflict as by community. Both human-made and natural disasters can foster moments of togetherness and altruism. This same dynamic plays out in learning environments, where friction can serve as a catalyst to inspire change: we often learn through productive conflict, discomfort, and respectful engagement with opposing viewpoints. This colloquium invites participants to contemplate the myriad ways that harmony and dissonance shape our world, our lives, and our communities, large and small.
We welcome proposals for papers, panels, artwork, posters, performances, workshops, etc. To submit a proposal, please send an abstract of roughly 250 words with name, contact information, and departmental affiliation to usi1lacolloquium@usi.edu by Friday, February 21, 2025.
Topics may include:
- Communities
- Utopias and dystopias
- Politics, collaboration and compromise
- Friction, clashes and tensions
- Music and musicality
- New Harmony, the Harmonists and the Owenites
- Cognitive and cultural dissonance
- Homeostasis
- Power differentials and conflict resolution
- Othering and subversion
- Opposites
- Dialogues and rhetoric