Transition pathways towards gender inclusion in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal (amplifyHer)
The project's interdisciplinary research aims to enhance systemic understanding of how gender equality can be promoted in Nepal's evolving music culture.
About the project
Addressing the globally set Sustainable Development Goals (UNESCO) requires that culture is seen as an important investment in the future. The amplifyHer project aims to increase understanding of the systemic interconnectedness of music tradition, social power dynamics, and gender hierarchies, as well as the potential of non-linear, emergent transformative change towards gender inclusion in and through musical arts and their public forms in society.
The research will be conducted in Nepal where rituals and festivals feature patriarchal music making, where female music making is still associated with stigmatisation, and where gender inequality continues to be a key barrier to education and women’s political agency. It highlights how patriarchal public music making risks sustaining unsustainability if conservation alone is taken as the sustainability goal, as suggested in much of the literature. By seeking drivers for socio-political change, the project’s approach challenges views of musical heritage that stress social-political neutrality, and instead, emphasises the two sides of music’s social power: That it can silently sustain hierarchical inequalities and exclusion equally as it can generate social transformation. It suggests that such transformation is possible through new social, spatial, musical reconfigurations that enable ‘performing difference’ in the public sphere.
Our objectives
- Co-develop systems reflexivity through knowledge on the negotiation and boundary-crossing of Nepali females who have been able to perform music amidst contradictory values and social expectations;
- Co-design systems interventions andleadership visions towards sustainable, gender-inclusive musical landscapes in Nepal;
- Co-construct gender-based conceptual systems framesthat inform global research, practice, and policy that strives towards sustainable musical heritage; and
- Promote responsible music professionalismand heritage activism,and the international academic careers of the Nepali team.
The project’s aims align with Finland’s development policy priorities, based on UNESCO’s Agenda 2030, as well as with policies that highlight the sustainability of vulnerable musical heritage. The social impact in Nepal will be achieved through multiple activities that demonstrate the possibility of gender-inclusiveness and that make space for women’s stories in Nepal.
News about the project
Heritage musicians promoting sustainable development
In October 2024, researcher Vilma Timonen led a panel with Kutumba, a Nepali folk music ensemble, in the international Glomus camp in Kathmandu, Nepal, on how heritage musicians can engage with issues of sustainability. Read the whole article
Team members
PI professor Heidi Westerlund, professor, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki
Lochan Rijal, associate professor, Kathmandu University
Danielle Treacy, researcher, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki
Vilma Timonen, researcher, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki
Riju Tuladhar, researcher and leader of the Echoes in the Valley, Kathmandu University
Pushpa Palanchoke, Doctoral researcher, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki
Prem Gurung, Doctoral researcher, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki
Publications
Peer-previewed articles and chapters
Treacy, D., Tuladhar, R. & Westerlund, H. (in press). Gender and music education in Nepali cultural ecosystems: Public pedagogy towards social and cultural sustainability. In A. de Quadros, A. & S. Oberoi (Eds.) Music Education in South Asia: Context and Practice. Routledge.
Conference and seminar presentations
Gurung, P. (Panelist) (2024, July 28 – August 2). Pathways toward gender inclusive music education in Nepal. In D. S. Treacy (chair), Gender equality and heritage activism in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal [Symposium]. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, Finland.
Palanchoke, P. (Participant and Presenter) (2024, November 18-19). Transforming Patriarchal Music Heritage Practices; A Case of Gender-Inclusive Placemaking and Institutional Resilience in Nepal. In Musical Sustainabilities symposium, Seinäjoki, Finland.
Palanchoke, P. (Panelist) (2024, July 28 – August 2). “Women as educative agents and public pedagogues- Pathways toward gender-inclusive heritage activism in music and music education in Nepal”. In D. S. Treacy (chair), Gender equality and heritage activism in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal [Symposium]. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, Finland.
Palanchoke, P. & Timonen, V. (2024) Transition pathways towards gender inclusion in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal. A presentation in Kaustinen ICH Academy Program, July 12, 2024, Kaustinen, Finland.
Palanchoke, P. (Lecturer) (2024, July 1). “Newa women as public pedagogues fostering gender-inclusive placemaking in music heritage: A case study of Taḥnani Dāphā Khalaḥ”. In Prof. Dr. Christiane Brosius (Chair), Heritage as Placemaking: Commoning Lecture Series, Heidelberg, Germany.
Palanchoke, P. (2023, November). Friendships within Dāphā: A mini-documentary for an appreciation of historic music tradition Dāphā. Paper presented at the International Society for Music Education (ISME) South Asia Regional Conference, KM Music Conservatory, Chennai, India, November 24–26, 2023.
Timonen, V., Tuladhar, R. & Lakhaju, P. (Panelists) (2024, July 28 – August 2). Teaching through Heritage. Education development project in Nepal. In D. S. Treacy (chair), Gender equality and heritage activism in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal [Symposium]. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, Finland.
Treacy, D. S. (Chair & panelist) (2024, July 28 – August 2). Introduction. In D. S. Treacy (chair), Gender equality and heritage activism in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal [Symposium]. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, Finland.
Westerlund, H. & Palanchoke, P. Musical heritage and gender equality: The amplifyHer project promoting a systems view. A presentation in the Echoes in the Valley Confluence ‘Music as Intangible Cultural Heritage’, March 23, 2024, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Westerlund, H., Treacy, D. S., & Tuladhar, R. (2023, November). Gender inclusive music practices in Nepal: Advocating social change and sustainability in the public sphere. Paper presented at the International Society for Music Education (ISME) South Asia Regional Conference, KM Music Conservatory, Chennai, India, November 24–26, 2023.
Other publications
Funding
Partners
Contact information for the project
-
Heidi Westerlund
- Professor, music education, doctoral education, MuTri Doctoral School, Sibelius Academy
- +358505015622
- heidi.westerlund@uniarts.fi
Project name
Transition pathways towards gender inclusion in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal (amplifyHer) project
Time
09/2023-12/2026
Funder
Academy Programme for Development Research, DEVELOP2, The Research Council of Finland
Collaborators
Main international partners: Kathmandu University (Nepal) and the Echoes in the Valley festival organisation (Nepal).
Finnish partner: Finnish Folk Music Institute
About the project
Addressing the globally set Sustainable Development Goals (UNESCO) requires that culture is seen as an important investment in the future. The amplifyHer project aims to increase understanding of the systemic interconnectedness of music tradition, social power dynamics, and gender hierarchies, as well as the potential of non-linear, emergent transformative change towards gender inclusion in and through musical arts and their public forms in society.
The research will be conducted in Nepal where rituals and festivals feature patriarchal music making, where female music making is still associated with stigmatisation, and where gender inequality continues to be a key barrier to education and women’s political agency. It highlights how patriarchal public music making risks sustaining unsustainability if conservation alone is taken as the sustainability goal, as suggested in much of the literature. By seeking drivers for socio-political change, the project’s approach challenges views of musical heritage that stress social-political neutrality, and instead, emphasises the two sides of music’s social power: That it can silently sustain hierarchical inequalities and exclusion equally as it can generate social transformation. It suggests that such transformation is possible through new social, spatial, musical reconfigurations that enable ‘performing difference’ in the public sphere.
Our objectives
- Co-develop systems reflexivity through knowledge on the negotiation and boundary-crossing of Nepali females who have been able to perform music amidst contradictory values and social expectations;
- Co-design systems interventions andleadership visions towards sustainable, gender-inclusive musical landscapes in Nepal;
- Co-construct gender-based conceptual systems framesthat inform global research, practice, and policy that strives towards sustainable musical heritage; and
- Promote responsible music professionalismand heritage activism,and the international academic careers of the Nepali team.
The project’s aims align with Finland’s development policy priorities, based on UNESCO’s Agenda 2030, as well as with policies that highlight the sustainability of vulnerable musical heritage. The social impact in Nepal will be achieved through multiple activities that demonstrate the possibility of gender-inclusiveness and that make space for women’s stories in Nepal.
News about the project
Heritage musicians promoting sustainable development
In October 2024, researcher Vilma Timonen led a panel with Kutumba, a Nepali folk music ensemble, in the international Glomus camp in Kathmandu, Nepal, on how heritage musicians can engage with issues of sustainability. Read the whole article
Team members
PI professor Heidi Westerlund, professor, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki
Lochan Rijal, associate professor, Kathmandu University
Danielle Treacy, researcher, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki
Vilma Timonen, researcher, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki
Riju Tuladhar, researcher and leader of the Echoes in the Valley, Kathmandu University
Pushpa Palanchoke, Doctoral researcher, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki
Prem Gurung, Doctoral researcher, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki
Publications
Peer-previewed articles and chapters
Treacy, D., Tuladhar, R. & Westerlund, H. (in press). Gender and music education in Nepali cultural ecosystems: Public pedagogy towards social and cultural sustainability. In A. de Quadros, A. & S. Oberoi (Eds.) Music Education in South Asia: Context and Practice. Routledge.
Conference and seminar presentations
Gurung, P. (Panelist) (2024, July 28 – August 2). Pathways toward gender inclusive music education in Nepal. In D. S. Treacy (chair), Gender equality and heritage activism in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal [Symposium]. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, Finland.
Palanchoke, P. (Participant and Presenter) (2024, November 18-19). Transforming Patriarchal Music Heritage Practices; A Case of Gender-Inclusive Placemaking and Institutional Resilience in Nepal. In Musical Sustainabilities symposium, Seinäjoki, Finland.
Palanchoke, P. (Panelist) (2024, July 28 – August 2). “Women as educative agents and public pedagogues- Pathways toward gender-inclusive heritage activism in music and music education in Nepal”. In D. S. Treacy (chair), Gender equality and heritage activism in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal [Symposium]. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, Finland.
Palanchoke, P. & Timonen, V. (2024) Transition pathways towards gender inclusion in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal. A presentation in Kaustinen ICH Academy Program, July 12, 2024, Kaustinen, Finland.
Palanchoke, P. (Lecturer) (2024, July 1). “Newa women as public pedagogues fostering gender-inclusive placemaking in music heritage: A case study of Taḥnani Dāphā Khalaḥ”. In Prof. Dr. Christiane Brosius (Chair), Heritage as Placemaking: Commoning Lecture Series, Heidelberg, Germany.
Palanchoke, P. (2023, November). Friendships within Dāphā: A mini-documentary for an appreciation of historic music tradition Dāphā. Paper presented at the International Society for Music Education (ISME) South Asia Regional Conference, KM Music Conservatory, Chennai, India, November 24–26, 2023.
Timonen, V., Tuladhar, R. & Lakhaju, P. (Panelists) (2024, July 28 – August 2). Teaching through Heritage. Education development project in Nepal. In D. S. Treacy (chair), Gender equality and heritage activism in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal [Symposium]. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, Finland.
Treacy, D. S. (Chair & panelist) (2024, July 28 – August 2). Introduction. In D. S. Treacy (chair), Gender equality and heritage activism in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal [Symposium]. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, Finland.
Westerlund, H. & Palanchoke, P. Musical heritage and gender equality: The amplifyHer project promoting a systems view. A presentation in the Echoes in the Valley Confluence ‘Music as Intangible Cultural Heritage’, March 23, 2024, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Westerlund, H., Treacy, D. S., & Tuladhar, R. (2023, November). Gender inclusive music practices in Nepal: Advocating social change and sustainability in the public sphere. Paper presented at the International Society for Music Education (ISME) South Asia Regional Conference, KM Music Conservatory, Chennai, India, November 24–26, 2023.
Other publications
Funding
Partners
Contact information for the project
-
Heidi Westerlund
- Professor, music education, doctoral education, MuTri Doctoral School, Sibelius Academy
- +358505015622
- heidi.westerlund@uniarts.fi