MUSIC THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

College 2: Sound Against Silence: Music in Pro-Palestinian Protest

Thursday 30 October 2025

Why does music play such a powerful role in protest? From chanting in the streets to standing among an excited crowed at a festival, music has a unique ability to unite people. This lecture explores how music functions in protest settings, focusing on how it is received and experienced by protesters and audiences. We’ll look at why music is crucial in turning a crowd into a collective and how it can channel emotion into action.
Drawing on recent pro-Palestinian protests in the Netherlands, including student occupations, and examples from the reception of artists like Dutch artist Sophie Straat and controversial Irish band Kneecap we will examine how music helps mobilize people and strengthen political movements from the ground up.

You can visit eacht college individually, or buy a combiticket for all four dates:
25-09: Sounds of protest: music, resistance, recognition
30-10: Sound Against Silence: Music in Pro-Palestinian Protest
27-11: Sounds of precariousness: why do musicians protest?
21-12: Sounds That Unite, Songs That Divide: Protest Music in Polarised Times

This programme is in English.

Ticket College 2 combiticket (4 dates)
  • €15,00
  • GR8
  • 06:00
  • 20:00
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About the lecturer;

Femke Vandenberg is an Assistant Professor of Audience Research, at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Her research and teaching focus on the role of music in society, where she is interested in the behavior, engagement, and experience of music audiences of various genres. Her doctoral dissertation, All Together Now: Live (Streamed) Music as Collective Practice, explored the social dynamics of live music in both physical and virtual settings. She has published widely on these topics in leading journals such as Poetics, European Societies, and Cultural Sociology.

MUSIC THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

Thursday 30 October 2025

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