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Dr Christopher Wiley joins Instagram

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Dr Christopher Wiley has started to maintain an Instagram account, posting at @dr_chris_wiley: https://www.instagram.com/dr_chris_wiley/.

Dr Wiley’s Instagram feed comprises news and events from the Department of Music and Media at the University of Surrey, including (but not limited to) that involving Dr Wiley and the BMus (Hons) Music programme.

Dr Wiley’s personal news highlights in research, teaching, and academic leadership will continue to be posted on this blog, although the Instagram feed will be the first to be updated.

News of Dr Wiley’s activities and achievements will also continue to be posted firstly at @dr_chris_wiley on X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/dr_chris_wiley

Dr Christopher Wiley participates in inaugural Research Conversation at the University of Lincoln

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Dr Christopher Wiley took part in the inaugural event in the ‘Research Conversations’ series, hosted by the School of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Lincoln, on Wednesday 23 February 2022.

The first of several such events, this 60-minute research open, on the subject of ‘Autoethnography in the Arts’, featured Dr Wiley in conversation with Dr Martin Scheuregger.

Speaking to 20 academics and researchers, Dr Wiley discussed autoethnography as a research method applicable to arts disciplines, as well as his own scholarship in the field, including his recent article on autoethnography in music studies.

Dr Christopher Wiley writes about Stephen Sondheim for The Conversation

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Dr Christopher Wiley has written an article for The Conversation (by invitation) on Stephen Sondheim (pictured), who died on 26 November 2021 at the age of 91.

Dr Wiley’s contribution, entitled ‘Five of Stephen Sondheim’s best shows’, was published just a few days later on 1 December 2021. It discussed Sondheim alongside his musicals West Side Story, Gypsy, Company, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, each of which was profiled in the article.

This is the fourth time that Dr Wiley has contributed to The Conservation, a global news website that offers commentary on news stories from leading academics. His most recent article, again on musical theatre, was published just over a year ago.

Bibliographic citation

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Five of Stephen Sondheim’s best shows’. The Conversation, 1 December 2021. <https://theconversation.com/five-of-stephen-sondheims-best-shows-172916>.

Update: Dr Wiley’s article has now been viewed over 30,000 times. It has been republished multiple times, including by The Theatre Times, Facts & Acts, and New York City News. It was the ninth most-read piece written by University of Surrey academics for The Conversation in 2021–22.

Dr Christopher Wiley gives lecture-recital on the comic songs of Alexander S. Bermange

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Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a lecture-recital on ‘The Comic Songs of Alexander S. Bermange’ on Wednesday 17 November 2021, as part of the lunchtime recital series at the University of Surrey.

The lecture-recital was given alongside Alexander S. Bermange (pictured) himself, who illustrated the talk with a series of performances of his comic songs. It opened the event ‘Laughing and Crying: Perspectives on 20th and 21st Century British Song’ held at the University that day.

Dr Wiley’s talk focused on musical allusion and compositional process in three songs by Alexander S. Bermange, ‘I Wish That My Life Were Like a Musical’, ‘I Think I Might Be Jesus’, and ‘The Seven Georges’, each performed by the composer-lyricist at the piano. Some 30 academics and students were in attendance.

Dr Christopher Wiley writes programme notes for Bard Music Festival

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Dr Christopher Wiley has written programme notes for a performance of Ethel Smyth’s opera Fête Galante given as part of the Bard Music Festival/Bard SummerScape at the Fisher Center, New York, on Saturday 14 August 2021

The Bard Music Festival takes place in August each year, dedicated to a specific composer (this year’s festival centred on Nadia Boulanger), on the campus of Bard College.

An internationally acknowledged expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley has previously given many public talks on the composer and written programme notes and liner notes including for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and for the CD recording of Fête Galante.

The full text of Dr Wiley’s programme note is available for download here: https://www.academia.edu/65112002/Programme_note_for_Ethel_Smyth_F%C3%AAte_Galante

Dr Christopher Wiley lead-edits new Routledge volume on women’s suffrage and the arts

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Dr Christopher Wiley has edited, together with Dr Lucy Ella Rose (University of Surrey), a new volume entitled Women’s Suffrage in Word, Image, Music, Stage and Screen: The Making of a Movement, published by Routledge in 2021.

The essay collection incorporates chapters written by authors who presented papers at a conference co-organized by Dr Wiley and Dr Rose at the University of Surrey in 2018, together with other invited contributors.

Authors range from distinguished senior academics to up-and-coming postgraduate researchers, and include Anne Anderson, Kathy Atherton, V. Irene Cockroft, Elizabeth Crawford, Brigitte Caroline Dale, Kristin M. Franseen, Amy Galvin, Marleen Hoffmann, Eleanor March, Gursimran Oberoi, Naomi Paxton, Sarah Pedersen, June Purvis, Lucy Ella Rose, Christopher Wiley, and Marion Wynne-Davies. The full table of contents may be viewed here.

Dr Wiley’s chapter in the volume, ‘Ethel Smyth, music and the suffragette movement: Reconsidering The Boatswain’s Mate as feminist opera’, discusses Ethel Smyth’s opera The Boatswain’s Mate in relation to the composer’s recent service to the suffragette movement, and subjects the common supposition that the work constitutes a ‘feminist opera’ to fresh scrutiny.

Dr Wiley and Dr Rose also co-authored the editorial introduction, ‘Women’s suffrage and cultural representation: The making of a movement’, in which they provide some historical context for the women’s suffrage movement and the many ways in which art intersected and engaged with it.

For further information (including reviews), and to purchase the volume: https://www.routledge.com/Womens-Suffrage-in-Word-Image-Music-Stage-and-Screen-The-Making-of/Wiley-Rose/p/book/9780367361983

Bibliographic citations

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Ethel Smyth, music and the suffragette movement: Reconsidering The Boatswain’s Mate as feminist opera’, in Christopher Wiley and Lucy Ella Rose eds. Women’s Suffrage in Word, Image, Music, Stage and Screen: The Making of a Movement. London: Routledge, 2021, pp. 169–85.

Wiley, Christopher and Lucy Ella Rose. ‘Women’s suffrage and cultural representation: The making of a movement’, in Christopher Wiley and Lucy Ella Rose eds. Women’s Suffrage in Word, Image, Music, Stage and Screen: The Making of a Movement. London: Routledge, 2021, pp. 1–14 .

Wiley, Christopher and Lucy Ella Rose eds. Women’s Suffrage in Word, Image, Music, Stage and Screen: The Making of a Movement. London: Routledge, 2021. pp. xxxv, 288. ISBN 978-0-367-36198-3 (hardback), 978-1-032-02492-9 (paperback).

Full text

The full text of Dr Wiley’s chapter is available here: https://www.academia.edu/65113008/Ethel_Smyth_Music_and_the_Suffragette_Movement_Reconsidering_The_Boatswains_Mate_as_Feminist_Opera

And the full text of the co-authored editorial introduction may be downloaded here: https://www.academia.edu/65112276/Womens_Suffrage_and_Cultural_Representation_The_making_of_a_movement

Update: The volume has received an excellent review by Katy Owen in the journal Women’s History Review: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/N36ZJDRPGIQHRC2K7D2X/full

Dr Christopher Wiley delivers internationally broadcast webinar on electronic voting systems in higher education teaching

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Dr Christopher Wiley has given a webinar on the use of electronic voting systems in higher education teaching, on Thursday 24 June 2021, 2–3pm GMT (9–10am EST), as the last of an international webinar series hosted by Turning (formerly Turning Technologies), a global leader in response technology.

Entitled ‘Creative Uses of Student Response Systems’, Dr Wiley’s one-hour webinar was broadcast to over 430 registered participants internationally, prompting a lively discussion to which moderator Kevin Herrholtz (Turning’s Vice President of Client Experience & Solutions) turned for questions periodically throughout the webinar.

Drawing on examples from his music teaching, Dr Wiley’s webinar discussed creative applications of electronic voting systems beyond the standard right-or-wrong multiple choice question, exploring advanced features of the software; pedagogies associated with electronic voting systems, and ways of combining them with other learning technologies; student feedback received on response systems, and tips for getting started.

Dr Wiley has been an International Distinguished Educator with Turning since 2012. He has spoken about electronic voting systems to many audiences both internationally and nationally (including previous webinars in 2020 and 2016), as well as publishing a report on the use of electronic voting systems in higher education teaching, available online here.

Further information about the webinar may be viewed at the following link: https://www.turning.com/webinars/creative-uses-of-student-response-systems

The complete recording of the webinar is available here: https://turningtechnologies-5.wistia.com/medias/js73pm1ov5

Update: Dr Wiley has contributed a guest blog post to learning technology company DisplayNote’s DisplayNote Dialogues blog, on teaching at university during the pandemic and how learning technology has facilitated this. Entitled ‘Teaching During the Pandemic: Technology to the Rescue’, and dated 8 September 2021, it may be read here: https://www.displaynote.com/blog/dr-christopher-wiley-teaching-during-the-pandemic-technology-to-the-rescue

Dr Christopher Wiley publishes article in top-quartile journal on the relationship between teaching and research

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Dr Christopher Wiley has published an article on the relationship between teaching and research in contemporary higher education, drawing autoethnographically on his experiences of delivering an undergraduate module on Adele (specifically her 25 album, pictured) and popular music.

Dr Wiley’s full-length article, ‘Exploring the integration of teaching and research in the contemporary classroom: An autoethnographic enquiry into designing an undergraduate music module on Adele’s 25 album’, appeared in the top-quartile journal Arts & Humanities in Higher Education, published online on 26 May 2021 (and subsequently in print on 1 February 2022).

Previous versions of this article had been presented as papers at high-profile international conferences in the UK and Canada.

Further information on Dr Wiley’s article, including the abstract and full text, is available here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14740222211013759

Bibliographic citation

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Exploring the integration of teaching and research in the contemporary classroom: An autoethnographic enquiry into designing an undergraduate music module on Adele’s 25 album’. Arts & Humanities in Higher Education: An international journal of theory, research, and practice, Vol. 21, No. 1 (February 2022), pp. 74–93. doi: 10.1177/14740222211013759.

Full text

The full text of Dr Wiley’s journal article is available here: https://www.academia.edu/65483928/Exploring_the_integration_of_teaching_and_research_in_the_contemporary_classroom_An_autoethnographic_inquiry_into_designing_an_undergraduate_music_module_on_Adeles_25_album

Dr Christopher Wiley leads session on student evaluation of teaching at University of Surrey Teaching Symposium

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Dr Christopher Wiley led a session on ‘Playful methods of student evaluation of teaching’ at the University of Surrey’s annual Surrey ExciTeS (Excellence in Teaching Symposium) on Wednesday 14 April 2021, on the theme of playful learning.

Dr Wiley outlined several different case studies of student evaluation of teaching using playful methods, which led to a fruitful discussion with the 30 academics from across the University who were in attendance.

The session was undertaken in advance of the appearance of Dr Wiley’s co-edited SEDA Special on student evaluation of teaching (pictured), and follows his other published research in the field.

This year, the Surrey ExciTeS symposium was split across two mornings (14–15 April) and was held online. Dr Wiley has also delivered sessions (in person) at all the previous Surrey ExciTeS events, in 20192018201720162015, and 2014, including one on student evaluation of teaching in 2015.

Dr Christopher Wiley gives live interview on BBC Radio Surrey

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imagedumpDr Christopher Wiley was interviewed live on BBC Radio Surrey for the ‘Breakfast on BBC Radio Surrey’ show presented by Lesley McCabe (pictured) on Monday 22 February 2021.

Dr Wiley was interviewed as an expert on Dame Ethel Smyth, who is due to be recognized in her home town of Woking with a statue as part of the development works for Dukes Court Plaza.

The full interview is available on BBC iPlayer here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p096gmrr (listen from 1.23.38-1.26.24)

Dr Wiley was previously interviewed on BBC Radio Surrey in 2018, in connection with the centenary of many women receiving the parliamentary vote in the UK.

Dr Christopher Wiley guest-hosts Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (#LTHEchat) Twitter chat on student evaluation of teaching

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Dr Christopher Wiley was invited to guest-host the first Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Twitter chat (#LTHEchat) of 2021, which took place on 13 January. #LTHEchat runs weekly on Wednesdays on Twitter from 8-9pm GMT and involves HE and FE practitioners from the UK and internationally at all stages of their career.

#LTHEchat No. 193, on the subject of ‘Evaluating Student Evaluation of Teaching’, anticipates the publication of the forthcoming SEDA SpecialStudent Evaluation of Teaching: From Performance Management to Quality Enhancement, which Dr Wiley has co-edited, and was also mindful of his pedagogic research on student evaluation of teaching (SET).

A graph representing the network of 186 Twitter users whose recent tweets included the hashtag #LTHEchat, or who were replied to or mentioned in those tweets, is available here: https://nodexlgraphgallery.org/Pages/Graph.aspx?graphID=245733

The Wakelet, which provides a digest of tweets received, is here: https://wakelet.com/wake/JTRN860aVYrfProCKj4r-

Dr Wiley previously guest-hosted #LTHEchat in February 2016, on ‘Using music creatively to enhance non-music teaching’.

Dr Christopher Wiley writes on stage-to-screen musical adaptations for The Conversation

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Dr Christopher Wiley contributed an article to The Conversation (by invitation) on film adaptations of stage musicals, published on 10 November 2020.

Entitled ‘The Prom: the challenges of adapting the stage to the screen’, Dr Wiley’s article was prompted by the upcoming release of the film adaptation of the musical The Prom on Netflix on 11 December 2020, while also discussing other examples such as A Chorus Line, Mamma mia!, and Cats.

This is the third time that Dr Wiley has written for The Conversation, his other articles being a piece on the 30th anniversary of the musical Les Misérables, and a scholarly response to Stephen Fry. Collectively these have received some 8,000 hits to date.

Founded in Australia in 2011 and launched in the UK in 2013, The Conversation is an independent global news website featuring stories and opinions from the scholarly community. The University of Surrey is one of its 13 founding UK partners.

Bibliographic citation

Wiley, Christopher. ‘The Prom: the challenges of adapting the stage to the screen’. The Conversation, 10 November 2020. <https://theconversation.com/the-prom-the-challenges-of-adapting-the-stage-to-the-screen-149783>.

Dr Christopher Wiley co-edits new Palgrave book on transnationality and artists’ lives

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Dr Christopher Wiley has co-edited, together with Dr Marleen Rensen (University of Amsterdam), a new volume entitled Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives, published by Palgrave Macmillan and including chapters on artists from Europe, North America, Africa, and Australasia representing a range of arts disciplines.

The book’s international contributors include Sander Bax, Suzanne Bode, Tamar Hager, Maximiliano Jiménez, Jane McVeigh, Anna Menyhért, Manet van Montfrans, Samantha Niederman, Suze van der Poll, Josiane Ranguin, Maria Razumovskaya, Marleen Rensen, Marc Röntsch, Maryam Thirriard, and Christopher Wiley. The table of contents is available here.

This essay collection was developed from a 2018 conference held at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, at which Dr Wiley, an internationally acknowledged expert on musical biography, gave a Keynote lecture.

Dr Wiley’s chapter in the volume, ‘Ethel Smyth as the composer Edith Staines in E.F. Benson’s Dodo trilogy’ (abstract available here), discusses the depiction of the composer Ethel Smyth as a fictional character in E.F. Benson’s sensational book Dodo and its sequels Dodo Wonders and Dodo’s Daughter.

Dr Rensen and Dr Wiley also co-authored the editorial introduction, ‘Writing Artists’ Lives Across Nations and Cultures: Biography, Biofiction and Transnationality’, which considers issues raised by writing the lives of artists, as well as the significance of transnationality to biography.

This is the second volume that Dr Wiley has published with Palgrave Macmillan this year, the first being on researching and writing about contemporary art and artists.

For further information, and to purchase the book: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030451998

Bibliographic citations

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Ethel Smyth as the composer Edith Staines in E.F. Benson’s Dodo trilogy’, in Marleen Rensen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 255–69. 

Rensen, Marleen and Christopher Wiley. ‘Writing Artists’ Lives Across Nations and Cultures: Biography, Biofiction and Transnationality’, in Marleen Rensen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 1–24. 

Rensen, Marleen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. pp. xv, 276. ISBN 978-3-030-45200-1, 978-3-030-45200-1 (eBook)

Full texts

The full text of Dr Wiley’s chapter is available here: https://www.academia.edu/65118145/Ethel_Smyth_as_the_composer_Edith_Staines_in_E_F_Bensons_Dodo_trilogy

And the full text of the co-authored editorial introduction may be downloaded here: https://www.academia.edu/65117588/Writing_Artists_Lives_Across_Nations_and_Cultures_Biography_Biofiction_and_Transnationality

Dr Christopher Wiley publishes major book chapter on musical biography in Oxford University Press volume

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Dr Christopher Wiley has written a major book chapter on musical biography for a new essay collection published by Oxford University Press, The Oxford Handbook of Music and Intellectual Culture in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Paul Watt, Sarah Collins, and Michael Allis.

Dr Wiley’s 12,000-word chapter, entitled ‘Biography and Life-Writing’ (abstract available here), discusses the advent of musical biography, its proliferation in the long nineteenth century, and its legacy up to the present. It includes two case studies: a compilation of anecdotes, to explore how Victorian values were reflected in contemporaneous life-writing; and a collected biography, to investigate the role of women as characters within musical biographies.

Dr Wiley is an internationally acknowledged expert on musical biography, the subject of his doctoral dissertation, and has previously published widely on the subject.

Bibliographic citation

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Biography and Life-Writing’, in Paul Watt, Sarah Collins, and Michael Allis eds. The Oxford Handbook of Music and Intellectual Culture in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020, pp. 77–101. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190616922.013.4

Full text

The full text of Dr Wiley’s chapter is available here: https://www.academia.edu/35186914/Biography_and_Life_Writing_Oxford_Handbook_of_Music_and_Intellectual_Culture_in_the_Nineteenth_Century_

Dr Christopher Wiley publishes book chapter in major Edinburgh University Press volume on literature and music

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Dr Christopher Wiley has contributed an essay to a major 70-chapter anthology, The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Music, edited by Delia da Sousa Correa and published by Edinburgh University Press.

Dr Wiley’s chapter, entitled ‘The Eighteenth-Century English Novel and Music: Virtuous Performers and Well-Mannered Listeners’, discusses the role of music in selected novels by Samuel Richardson and Frances Burney.

Further information about the volume (including the table of contents) may be found here: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-edinburgh-companion-to-literature-and-music.html

Bibliographic citation

Wiley, Christopher. ‘The Eighteenth-Century English Novel and Music: Virtuous Performers and Well-Mannered Listeners’, in Delia da Sousa Correa ed. The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Music. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020, pp. 318–26. 

Full text

The full text of Dr Wiley’s chapter is available here: https://www.academia.edu/35119223/The_Eighteenth_Century_English_Novel_and_Music_Virtuous_Performers_and_Well_Mannered_Listeners

Dr Christopher Wiley lead-edits new Palgrave book on researching and writing about contemporary art and artists

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Dr Christopher Wiley has edited, together with Dr Ian Pace (City, University of London), a new book entitled Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities, published by Palgrave Macmillan and encompassing music, literature, dance, theatre and the visual arts.

Developed from a conference held at the University of Surrey in 2017, the volume includes contributions by Joel Baldwin, Richard Birchall, Jill Brown, Miriam Cabell and Phoebe Stubbs, Vered Engelhard, Christopher Leedham and Martin Scheuregger, Ian Pace, Andy W. Smith, Joanne ‘Bob’ Whalley, Christopher Wiley, Annie Yim, and Lorraine York.

Dr Wiley has co-authored two chapters in the collection: the editorial introduction, ‘Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists’, with Ian Pace; and the chapter MusicArt: Creating Dialogues Across the Arts’, in conversation with Dr Annie Yim.

For further information, and to purchase the book: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030392321
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/3030392325

Bibliographic citations 

Wiley, Christopher and Ian Pace. ‘Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists’, in Christopher Wiley and Ian Pace eds. Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39233-8_1

Yim, Annie and Christopher Wiley. ‘MusicArt: Creating Dialogues Across the Arts’, in Christopher Wiley and Ian Pace eds. Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 259–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39233-8_14

Wiley, Christopher and Ian Pace eds. Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. ISBN 978-3-030-39232-1, 978-3-030-39233-8 (eBook). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39233-8

Full texts

The full text of the editorial introduction is available for free download under licence from Surrey Research Insight Open Access: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/857053/

Dr Christopher Wiley co-organizes online international conference on music composition and autoethnography

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Dr Christopher Wiley has co-organized, with Dr Iain Findlay-Walsh, a major two-day conference entitled ‘The Autoethnography of Composition and the Composition of Autoethnography’, held on 17–18 June 2020.

Hosted online by the University of Glasgow and the University of Surrey, the event brought together over 250 delegates from across the globe. It featured Professor Peter Gouzouasis as keynote speaker, multiple panel sessions (one of which was chaired by Dr Wiley), and a concluding roundtable discussion (including Dr Wiley as co-chair and speaker).

Click here to download the Conference Programme: Conference brochure PDF

For the video recording of the conference, please contact Dr Wiley directly.

The event followed a previous two-day international conference on music and autoethnography held at the Institute of Musical Research, London in April 2018.

For additional information and the call for papers (now closed): https://goldenpages.jpehs.co.uk/2019/12/09/the-autoethnography-of-composition-and-the-composition-of-autoethnography/

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Dr Christopher Wiley delivers internationally broadcast webinar for Turning Technologies on electronic voting systems

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TurningTechnologies_170x43Dr Christopher Wiley has given a webinar on electronic voting systems and their potential applications in arts and humanities teaching, on Wednesday 4 March 2020, 2–3pm GMT (9–10am EST), as part of the Turning Technologies Webinar Series.

Drawing on his teaching in popular music, classical music, and musical theatre, Dr Wiley’s one-hour webinar, entitled ‘Using Electronic Voting Systems Creatively in the Arts and Humanities’, was broadcast to over 130 registered participants internationally.

Dr Wiley has been an International Distinguished Educator with Turning Technologies since 2012. He has spoken about electronic voting systems to many audiences both internationally and nationally, as well as publishing a report on the use of electronic voting systems in higher education teaching, available online here.

Further information about the webinar may be viewed at the following link: https://www.turningtechnologies.com/news-and-events/webinars/using-electronic-voting-systems-creatively-in-the-arts-and-humanities/

The complete recording of the webinar is available here: https://turningtechnologies-5.wistia.com/medias/3jz3qmqxm1

Dr Christopher Wiley writes ‘Composer of the Month’ article on Ethel Smyth for Australia’s Limelight Magazine

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Dr Christopher Wiley has contributed an article on Ethel Smyth for the January/February 2020 issue of Limelight, Australia’s classical music and arts magazine, for its ‘Composer of the Month’ feature.

In the four-page article (pp. 76–79), Dr Wiley, an internationally acknowledged expert on Smyth, introduces the composer to the readers, discussing her life story as well as drawing attention to salient features of her musical works.

The full text of the article may be read here: https://www.academia.edu/65115923/Ethel_Smyth_Composer_of_the_Month

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Dr Christopher Wiley gives talk on Ethel Smyth for Byfleet Heritage Society

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St Mary's Centre for the CommunityDr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk entitled ‘Dame Ethel Smyth (1858–1944), Composer, Author, Suffragette, and Surrey Resident’ for Byfleet Heritage Society at St Mary’s Centre for the Community, Byfleet on Thursday 21 November 2019.

Speaking to an audience of some 50 society members, Dr Wiley introduced Smyth’s life, music, and connections to the local area, in a 50-minute talk illustrated with musical excerpts.

An acknowledged expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley has previously given many public talks on the composer, writer, and suffragette including those for Woking Historical Society, Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group, and at Smyth’s childhood home in Frimley Green.

Dr Christopher Wiley co-writes essay in CD booklet for new Ethel Smyth recording

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FeteG_front_coverDr Christopher Wiley has co-written, with Dr Valerie Langfield, an essay published in the accompanying booklet to Retrospect Opera’s new CD of Ethel Smyth’s Fête Galante, entitled ‘Fête Galante: Ethel Smyth’s Neoclassical Dance-Opera’. He also contributed the work’s synopsis.

The disc represents the first recording of Smyth’s opera Fête Galante, conducted by Odaline de la Martinez. It also includes Liza Lehmann’s recitation The Happy Prince, recorded at the University of Surrey (Dr Wiley arranged and helped out with the recording sessions), together with some historical transfers of recordings of Smyth’s operas made during her lifetime.

This is the seventh CD release by Retrospect Opera, for whom Dr Wiley serves as one of four Trustees. Dr Wiley previously wrote essays for the liner notes to Retrospect Opera’s releases of Smyth’s operas The Boatswain’s Mate and The Wreckers.

For further information, and to buy the CD: https://retrospectopera.org.uk/SMYTH/FeteG.html

Full text

The full texts of both Dr Wiley’s synopsis and co-written essay are available for free download under licence from Surrey Research Insight Open Access: https://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/853063/

Update: Dr Wiley has also co-written, with Lucy Stevens and Odaline de la Martinez, the liner notes for the CD Dame Ethel Smyth: Songs and Ballads (SOMM 2020), featuring Lucy Stevens (contralto), Elizabeth Marcus (piano), and the Berkeley Ensemble conducted by Odaline de la Martinez. Further information: https://www.somm-recordings.com/recording/dame-ethel-smyth-songs-and-ballads/

 

Dr Christopher Wiley guest-edits special issue of the Journal of Musicological Research on musical biography

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JMR 38 3-4

Dr Christopher Wiley has guest-edited a special double-issue of the Journal of Musicological Research together with co-editor Dr Paul Watt (Monash University, Melbourne).

Entitled ‘Musical Biography: Myth, Ideology, and Narrative’, the special issue comprises Vol. 38, Nos. 3–4 of the journal, and developed originally from a conference on musical biography co-organized by the editors in 2015.

The special issue includes articles by a wide range of international scholars: Kirsty Asmussen, Anna Maria Barry, Joanne Cormac, Uri Golomb and Ronit Seter, Markéta Kratochvílová, Emily MacGregor, Richard Parfitt, Paul Watt, and Christopher Wiley.

Dr Wiley’s contribution to the special issue includes his 10,000-word article, ‘Myth-Making and the Politics of Nationality in Narratives of J.S. Bach’s 1717 Contest with Louis Marchand’ (pp. 193–215), which examines the widely divergent writing on a single biographical episode across the countries and centuries (see abstract here).

Dr Wiley and Dr Watt also co-authored an introductory article, ‘Musical Biography in the Musicological Arena’ (pp. 187–92), in which they reflect on the current status of musical biography within the discipline of musicology.

The full table of contents for the special issue is available here: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/gmur20/38/3-4

Bibliographic citations 

Wiley, Christopher and Watt, Paul (eds.). ‘Musical Biography: Myth, Ideology, and Narrative’, Journal of Musicological Research, Special Issue, Vol. 38, Nos. 3–4 (2019).

Wiley, Christopher and Watt, Paul. ‘Musical Biography in the Musicological Arena’, Journal of Musicological Research, Vol. 38, Nos. 3–4 (2019), pp. 187–92. doi: 10.1080/01411896.2019.1644140

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Myth-Making and the Politics of Nationality in Narratives of J.S. Bach’s 1717 Contest with Louis Marchand’, Journal of Musicological Research, Vol. 38, Nos. 3–4 (2019), pp. 193–215. doi: 10.1080/01411896.2019.1644141

Dr Christopher Wiley chairs roundtable and presents paper at Royal Musical Association annual conference in Manchester

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Dr Christopher Wiley has chaired and presented at a roundtable discussion at the 55th Annual Conference of the Royal Musical Association, hosted by the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music on 11–13 September 2019.

Entitled ‘What is the place for storytelling in academia? Autoethnography, critical self-reflection, and arts-based practice in music studies’, the roundtable was held in the Carole Nash Recital Room at the Royal Northern College of Music, and was attended by some 50 music scholars representing a wide range of institutions internationally.

The 90-minute roundtable included Dr Wiley’s paper ‘Stories of the self(s) in music studies: method, self-reflexivity, and narrative enquiry’, in which he discussed the potential applications of autoethnography to the discipline of music as well as criticisms that the methodology has elicited, alongside presentations by fellow panellists Esther Cavett, Ian Pace, and Darla M. Crispin.

The conference website is located here: https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/music/connect/events/rma2019/

The full programme may be downloaded here: https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/music/connect/events/rma2019/programme/

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Dr Christopher Wiley publishes creatively written journal article on autoethnography, autobiography, and arts research

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Dr Christopher Wiley haMDG-Actions published an article in a special issue of Action, Criticism, and Theory in Music Education (the refereed journal of the MayDay Group) on autoethnography and related methodologies, guest-edited by Peter Gouzouasis.

Entitled ‘Autoethnography, Autobiography, and Creative Art as Academic Research in Music Studies: A Fugal Ethnodrama’, the article is written creatively as an imagined dialogue between Dr Wiley and two fictional doctoral students, constructed according to the principles of fugue.

In successive sections, it discusses the application of autoethnography to music studies, the difference between autoethnography and autobiography, and the types of materials that represent valid sources for autoethnography, including creative writing as well as musical works themselves.

Dr Wiley’s article may be read online in HTML format here: http://act.maydaygroup.org/act-18-2-wiley/

It may be downloaded as a PDF here: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Wiley18_2.pdf

The full issue of the journal may be accessed here: http://act.maydaygroup.org/volume-18-issue-2/

Dr Christopher Wiley publishes entry in major Haydn encyclopedia

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9781107129016Dr Christopher Wiley has written the entry on ‘Contemporary Reception’ in the Cambridge Haydn Encyclopedia, edited by Caryl Clark and Sarah Day-O’Connell.

The Cambridge Haydn Encyclopedia features over 80 interlocking entries fanning out from seven extended essays at the heart of the volume, and includes a total of 67 contributors.

Dr Wiley’s 1500-word encyclopedia entry discusses Haydn’s reception during his lifetime and immediately afterwards, including the earliest biographies by Griesinger, Dies, and Carpani.

Dr Wiley previously contributed to Haydn scholarship in a major volume on the composer published in 2013.

Further information  on the volume may be found at the publisher’s website: https://www.cambridge.org/de/academic/subjects/music/eighteenth-century-music/cambridge-haydn-encyclopedia

Bibliographic citation 

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Reception, Contemporary’, in Caryl Clark and Sarah Day-O’Connell eds. Cambridge Haydn Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, pp. 321–5. ISBN 978-1-1071-2901-6.

Dr Christopher Wiley convenes student panel discussion at University of Surrey Teaching Symposium

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Dr Christopher Wiley facilitated a student discussion panel at the University of Surrey’s sixth annual Surrey ExciTeS (Excellence in Teaching Symposium) on Wednesday 3 April 2019, on the subject of student-staff partnerships.

The forum, entitled ‘Giving music students ownership of their learning’, discussed the Music Project module that had taken place during the previous semester on the theme of musical theatre, and the wide range of activities that students undertook in their assessments, from performances to compositions to organizational roles.

The panel of undergraduate Music students – Diana Nemyrovska, Katy Jackson, Heather Neele, and Edward Bellett-Travers (pictured, l-r) – answered questions from academics and learning support staff from across the University.

Dr Wiley has delivered sessions at Surrey ExciTeS events in 2018201720162015, and 2014, including a previous student discussion panel in 2017.

Case study by Dr Christopher Wiley features in book publication on teaching in higher education

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Developing Your Teaching

Dr Christopher Wiley has featured as a case study in a new book publication on teaching in higher education.

The second edition of Developing Your Teaching: Towards Excellence by Peter Kahn and Lorraine Anderson, in Routledge’s Key Guides for Effective Teaching in Higher Education series, includes vignettes and case studies on a wide range of topics.

Dr Wiley’s case study, ‘Going the extra mile with a postgraduate teaching qualification’, draws upon his experiences in reading for the degree of MA in Academic Practice at City University London, from which he graduated in 2015, in order to consider the benefits of higher education teaching qualifications.

It is a streamlined and reworked version of an essay that Dr Wiley previously published in Educational Developments, The Magazine of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), in December last year.

Details of the book may be found here: https://www.routledge.com/Developing-Your-Teaching-Towards-Excellence-2nd-Edition/Kahn-Anderson/p/book/9781138591196

Dr Christopher Wiley publishes article on module evaluation surveys in Studies in Educational Evaluation journal

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X0191491XDr Christopher Wiley has published an article on standardized student evaluation of teaching in the peer-reviewed journal Studies in Educational Evaluation (ISSN: 0191-491X).

Dr Wiley’s article, ‘Standardised module evaluation surveys in UK higher education: Establishing students’ perspectives’, explores the views of student representatives at a single university.

Originally developed in partial fulfilment of the degree of MA in Academic Practice, this research indicates that standardizing module evaluation limits its applicability to local contexts, and that caution should be exercised over interpreting its results in isolation.

Bibliographic citation 

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Standardised module evaluation surveys in UK higher education: Establishing students’ perspectives’, Studies in Educational Evaluation, Vol. 61 (June 2019), pp. 55–65. doi: 10.1016/j.stueduc.2019.02.004

Full text

The full text is available for free download under licence from Surrey Research Insight Open Access.

The article may be previewed here: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1YhNB_,RtPex1z

 

Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper in the Faculty of Music Colloquium Series at the University of Cambridge

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University of Cambridge Faculty of MusicDr Christopher Wiley presented a 45-minute version of his paper ‘Reconsidering Ethel Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’ in the Faculty of Music Colloquium Series at the University of Cambridge.

Dr Wiley’s talk, given to an audience of some 40 academics and graduate students in the Faculty’s lecture room, was a much extended version of the paper he has delivered at women’s history events at UK universities including KentPortsmouthSurreyRoyal Holloway, and Edge Hill.

Dr Wiley previously gave an unrelated paper in an Oxbridge colloquium series in 2015.

Further information about Dr Wiley’s colloquium may be found here: https://www.mus.cam.ac.uk/events/current-events/Christopher-Wiley

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Dr Christopher Wiley publishes article on higher education teaching qualifications in SEDA’s Educational Developments magazine

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seda logoDr Christopher Wiley has published an article in the December 2018 issue (Issue 19.4) of Educational Developments, The Magazine of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA).

Dr Wiley’s article provides a ten-year retrospective reflection on his study for the degree of MA in Academic Practice at City University London, from which he graduated in 2015, as well as discussing the benefits of higher education teaching qualifications more widely.

The essay, ‘In defence of higher education teaching qualifications: Reflections on studying for the degree of MA in Academic Practice, ten years on’, is a longer version of a case study that Dr Wiley has developed for the forthcoming second edition of Kahn and Walsh’s (now Kahn and Anderson’s) Developing Your Teaching, part of Routledge’s Key Guides for Effective Teaching in Higher Education series.

The full contents page of this issue of Educational Developments may be viewed here: https://www.seda.ac.uk/past-issues/19.4

Bibliographic citation

‘In defence of higher education teaching qualifications: Reflections on studying for the degree of MA in Academic Practice, ten years on’, Educational Developments, Issue 19.4 (December 2018), pp.16–17. ISSN 1469-3267

Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at community workshop at the University of Kent

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Dr Christopher Wiley at the University of Kent

Dr Christopher Wiley has spoken at the ‘100+ years of the women’s movement in Kent, Sussex, and Surrey’ community workshop held in the Tonbridge Centre at the University of Kent on Saturday 8 December 2018.

Dr Wiley’s paper, entitled ‘Ethel Smyth, Music, and the Suffragette Movement: Reconsidering The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’, had previously been presented at UK universities including PortsmouthSurreyRoyal Holloway, and Edge Hill. The day ended, rather fittingly, with an impromptu rendition of Smyth’s ‘The March of the Women’.

The full programme for the workshop may be found at the following link: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/womenshistorykent/programme-of-community-workshop-on-8th-december/

Dr Christopher Wiley publishes two articles in Women’s History journal

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Dr Christopher Wiley has contributed two articles to the latest issue of Women’s History, the journal of the Women’s History Network.

The special double-issue, ‘1918-2018’, was dedicated to the women’s suffrage movement in the centenary year of women gaining the parliamentary vote in the UK, and features essays by a range of leading scholars of women’s history.

Dr Wileys first article, ‘Ethel Smyth, Suffrage and Surrey: From Frimley Green to Hook Heath, Woking’, combines women’s history and local history in order to illustrate how the suffragette campaign was highly dependent on rural locations through the example of Ethel Smyth.

His other article is ‘A Fresh Start and Two (More) Portraits: Theatrical Shows on the Life and Work of Ethel Smyth for 2018’, a review-article of Ethel Smyth: Grasp the Nettle and Ethel Smyth: A Furious Longing (the latter having been co-written by Dr Wiley).

Further information on the journal special issue is available here: https://womenshistorynetwork.org/womens-history-autumn-2018/

Bibliographic citations

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Ethel Smyth, Suffrage and Surrey: From Frimley Green to Hook Heath, Woking’, Women’s History: The Journal of the Women’s History Network, Vol. 2, No. 11 (Autumn 2018), pp. 11–18.

Wiley, Christopher. ‘A Fresh Start and Two (More) Portraits: Theatrical Shows on the Life and Work of Ethel Smyth for 2018’, Women’s History: The Journal of the Women’s History Network, Vol. 2, No. 11 (Autumn 2018), pp. 39–40.

Full texts

The full texts are available for free download under licence from Surrey Research Insight Open Access: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/849970/ and http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/849971/

Dr Christopher Wiley writes programme notes for BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus concert

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The BarbicanDr Christopher Wiley has written programme notes for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus concert at The Barbican, London (pictured) on Thursday 15 November 2018.

Dr Wiley contributed programme notes for Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D as well as a biographical profile of the composer.

Dr Wiley previously wrote programme notes for a BBC Proms concert featuring Smyth’s music in August of this year.

The concert presented Smyth’s Mass in D alongside Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 (original version).

Further information on the event may be found here: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/event/bbc-sobrabbins-ethel-smyth-mass-in-d

Dr Christopher Wiley addresses Turning Technologies User Conference in Spain

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Dr Christopher Wiley at the Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaDr Christopher Wiley has spoken at the Turning Technologies User Conference 2018, held at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain on Wednesday 7 November 2018.

Drawing on the uses of electronic voting systems in his university teaching in music across several years, Dr Wiley’s presentation ‘Using Electronic Voting Systems Creatively in the Arts and Humanities’ was given to an audience of some 25 international academics and learning technologists.

A Distinguished Educator with Turning Technologies since 2012, Dr Wiley has previously addressed User Conferences in the UK, Ireland, Germany, and Denmark.

The full programme for the conference may be viewed here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/imgsrv.turningtechnologies.com/marketing/intl_images/TTUC+Barcelona+-+Agenda.pdf

Dr Wiley also discussed his talk in a post on Turning Technologies’s website: https://www.turningtechnologies.eu/2018/10/11/vote-for-the-arts-and-humanities/

Dr Christopher Wiley gives pre-concert talk in Southwark Cathedral, London

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Southwark Cathedral Entrance

Dr Christopher Wiley has given a pre-concert talk on Ethel Smyth for a performance of the composer’s Mass in D in Southwark Cathedral, London (pictured) on Saturday 3 November 2018.

In the 15-minute talk, Dr Wiley addressed some 150 audience members in the Cathedral’s transepts.

The concert, by the London Oriana Choir and Meridian Sinfonia, presented Smyth’s Mass in D alongside J.S. Bach’s Magnificat.

The listing for the concert may be found here: https://www.londonoriana.com/past-performances

Further information on the concert is available here: https://www.planethugill.com/2018/10/ethel-smyths-mass-in-g-at-southwark.html

Dr Christopher Wiley serves as historical adviser and scriptwriter for community play on Ethel Smyth

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Ethel Smyth - A Furious LongingDr Christopher Wiley has acted as historical adviser as well as one of the team of scriptwriters for the community play Ethel Smyth: A Furious Longing – The Story of Woking’s Composer.

Several years in the planning, the play was performed by Woking Community Play Association from Thursday 4–Saturday 6 October 2018 at the H.G. Wells Centre, Woking.

Dr Wiley was one of five scriptwriters who collaborated on the 90-minute play, as well as advising on its historical and musical elements.

Dr Wiley’s contributions to the script drew directly on his research on Ethel Smyth, including her involvement with the suffragette movement, her operas The Wreckers and The Boatswain’s Mate, and her relationship with the writer Virginia Woolf.

Dr Christopher Wiley delivers presentation at Ethel Smyth’s childhood home

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERADr Christopher Wiley has given a talk on Ethel Smyth at her childhood home, Frimhurst Family House, Frimley Green, on Saturday 15 September 2018.

The event was organised for Heritage Open Days by Surrey Heath Museum and the charity ATD Fourth World, which now operates at Frimhurst Family House.

It marked the unveiling of blue plaques commemorating both Smyth and the philanthropist Grace Goodman, who transformed the house into its present function as recuperative facility for families in extreme poverty.

An acknowledged expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley previously gave a talk at Frimhurst Family House on the composer and suffragette back in 2016.

Further information on the event is available here: https://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/residents/surrey-heath-museum/museum-events/heritage-open-days-surrey-heath

Dr Christopher Wiley at the unveiling of the blue plaque to Ethel Smyth in Woking

Update: The following weekend, on Saturday 22 September, Dr Wiley attended a private ceremony (pictured, above) at which a blue plaque was unveiled at Smyth’s former house in Woking.

Dr Wiley’s interview about the event for That’s Surrey TV may be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiBN2ZXVPz0

Media coverage may also be found at the following link: http://surreyresidents.co.uk/2018/09/24/blue-plaque-marks-the-duchess-of-wokings-former-home/

As well as on Woking Borough Council’s website: https://www.woking.gov.uk/news/blue-plaque-marks-duchess-woking%E2%80%99s-former-home

Dr Christopher Wiley gives talk for Heritage Open Days at Farnham Maltings

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Farnham MaltingsDr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk on Ethel Smyth in the Cellar Bar at Farnham Maltings as part of the annual programme of Heritage Open Days on Friday 14 September 2018.

Speaking to an audience of over 50 people, Dr Wiley discussed Smyth’s music, literature, and activity as a suffragette, illustrating his presentation with music examples.

Further information about Dr Wiley’s talk may be found at the following link: https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/dame-ethel-smyth-composer-and-suffragette

Media coverage of the Heritage Open Days activities taking place in the local area may be viewed online here: http://www.farnhamherald.com/article.cfm?id=129364, http://www.farnhamherald.com/article.cfm?id=129629

Dr Christopher Wiley gives talk on Ethel Smyth for Woking History Society

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Ethel SmythDr Christopher Wiley gave a talk on Ethel Smyth for Woking History Society in The Gallery at Christ Church Woking on Monday 3 September 2018.

Addressing over 50 audience members, Dr Wiley’s hour-long presentation discussed Smyth’s activity as composer, author, suffragette, and, for the last several decades of her life, a Woking resident.

Dr Wiley previously spoke about Ethel Smyth at The Lightbox, Woking for International Women’s Day earlier in the year, as well as hosting and performing in a concert of Smyth’s music at Christ Church Woking in 2014, to mark the 70th anniversary of her death.

Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at Women’s History Network annual conference at the University of Portsmouth

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Women's History Network logoDr Christopher Wiley was among the many speakers who presented at the 27th Annual Conference of the Women’s History Network, held at the University of Portsmouth on Friday 31 August–Saturday 1 September 2018.

Entitled ‘The Campaign for Women’s Suffrage: National and International Perspectives’, the conference attracted a large delegation of scholars of women’s history internationally.

Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Ethel Smyth, Music, and the Suffragette Movement: Reconsidering The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’, was presented in one of the conference’s parallel sessions to an audience of some 25 academics.

Dr Christopher Wiley at the University of Portsmouth

Dr Wiley considered the extent to which Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate might be considered a feminist opera, with reference to the composer’s suffragette activity, the story on which the work was based, and her creative process, including her adaptation of pre-existing music in the score.

Dr Wiley has presented previous versions of his paper at several other UK universities including Surrey, Royal Holloway, and Edge Hill.

The conference website is here: http://www2.port.ac.uk/centre-for-european-and-international-studies-research/events/womens-suffrage-2018/

The complete programme for the event is available for download here: http://www2.port.ac.uk/media/contacts-and-departments/ceisr/events/Suffrage-Conference-2018.pdf

Dr Christopher Wiley gives interview on Ethel Smyth for Swedish television

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Dr Christopher Wiley has been interviewed for Sveriges Television (SVT) as part of a mini-series of half-hour programmes focusing on orchestral music composed by women.

Interview with Swedish television

Talking about Ethel Smyth, Dr Wiley was filmed in conversation with the acclaimed Norwegian conductor, Cathrine Winnes.

Filming took place on Tuesday 28 August 2018 both in Dr Wiley’s office, and on location at Smyth’s former home in Woking.

This television appearance evidences Dr Wiley’s reputation as an internationally leading researcher on Smyth, and follows his previous interviews on Smyth for radio and television earlier in the year.

The television series is due to be broadcast in Sweden in early 2019.

Dr Christopher Wiley publishes 50th review for Musical Theatre Review

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Musical Theatre ReviewDr Christopher Wiley has written 50 reviews since February 2014 for the digital magazine Musical Theatre Review, which covers a wide variety of live events internationally, ranging from pop gigs to opera in addition to musical theatre, and is Vuelio’s no.2 theatre blog.

Among the many highlights of Dr Wiley’s activity include reviews of Elaine Paige’s ‘Stripped Back’ tour, of Mandela Trilogy by Cape Town Opera at the Royal Festival Hall, London, and of the international première of Strictly Ballroom: The Musical at Sydney Lyric Theatre, Australia.

Other highlights include the 2014 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel; Sinatra: The Main Event at Cadogan Hall, London, starring Richard Shelton; and solo shows by leading West End stars Daniel Koek and Nadim Naaman.

Coincidentally, Dr Wiley’s first and 50th reviews were of two shows written and performed by the same artist, comic songwriter Alexander S. Bermange. The artist most frequently reviewed by Dr Wiley is Pippa Winslow, who features in seven different reviews.

Dr Wiley has also reviewed student productions by many of the major performing arts institutions and organisations, particularly Guildford School of Acting and Youth Music Theatre UK; as well as many new works of musical theatre, and one-off productions in popular London venues such as The Pheasantry.

A complete listing of Dr Wiley’s reviews for Musical Theatre Review is available at the following link: http://musicaltheatrereview.com/?s=Christopher+Wiley

Dr Christopher Wiley contributes programme notes to BBC Proms programme

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Royal Albert HallDr Christopher Wiley has contributed notes to the programme for The BBC Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London (pictured) on Wednesday 1 August 2018.

Prom 24, ‘A Hero’s Life’, presented Ethel Smyth’s ‘On the Cliffs of Cornwall’ (Prelude to Act 2 of her opera The Wreckers), as well as Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor and Richard Strauss’s tone poem Ein Heldenleben.

As an internationally leading researcher on Ethel Smyth, Dr Wiley was invited to write programme notes for ‘On the Cliffs of Cornwall’ as well as a brief biographical profile for the composer.

A regular fixture at The Proms during her own lifetime, Smyth’s ‘On the Cliffs of Cornwall’ was programmed for the 2018 season mindful of the composer’s period of activity as a leading suffragette, in the centenary year of many women receiving the parliamentary vote in the UK for the first time.

Dr Christopher Wiley co-organizes and presents paper at international conference on women’s suffrage at the University of Surrey

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Dr Christopher Wiley and Dr Charlotte Mathieson open the conference (from Twitter)

Dr Christopher Wiley served as one of three conference co-chairs for the two-day international conference ‘Centennial Reflections on Women’s Suffrage and the Arts – Local : National : Transnational’ held at the University of Surrey on 29-30 June 2018, together with two colleagues from the University’s School of Literature and Languages, Dr Charlotte Mathieson (pictured with Dr Wiley, right) and Dr Lucy Ella Rose.

Panel discussion L-R Codee Spinner, Dr Amy Zigler, Dr Christopher Wiley (from Twitter)

The conference incorporated more than 25 papers including Dr Wiley’s own ‘Ethel Smyth, Music, and the Suffragette Movement: Reconsidering The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’, which he had previously given at Edge Hill University earlier in the year. The panel on which he spoke, Women’s Suffrage in/and Music’, led to an animated question and answer session (pictured, left).

Roundtable discussion L-R Christopher Wiley, Kate Willoughby, Lucy Stevens, Jacqueline Mulhullan (from Twitter)

Dr Wiley also convened and participated in a roundtable discussion (pictured, right) featuring three professional actresses who have recently developed shows on themes of women’s suffrage, Jacqueline Mulhallen (Sylvia, based on Sylvia Pankhurst), Lucy Stevens (Grasp The Nettle, on Ethel Smyth), and Kate Willoughby (#Emilymatters, a social media campaign inspired by Emily Wilding Davison), all of whom performed extracts from their plays as part of the conference.

Dr Christopher Wiley introduces Keynote speaker Elizabeth Crawford, OBE (from Twitter)

Finally, Dr Wiley chaired a session on ‘Ethel Smyth, Suffrage, and Transnationality’, drawing on his reputation as an acknowledged expert on the composer, and was privileged to introduce Keynote speaker Elizabeth Crawford (pictured, left), who had been awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List earlier in the month for services to education in relation to women’s history.

The event attracted more than 40 delegates (pictured, below), with speakers ranging from University of Surrey academics and postgraduate researchers to museum-based archivists to international scholars from the UK, Continental Europe, and North America representing the disciplines of literature, music, film, and the visual arts.

The conference organizers gratefully acknowledge the support of the School of Literature and Languages at the University of Surrey; The British Association for Victorian Studies; and The Feminist and Women’s Studies Association UK & Ireland.

Further information may be found at the conference website: https://suffragecentennial.wordpress.com/

The full programme, including abstracts, is available here: https://suffragecentennial.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/suffrage-conference-programme-2018.pdf

Conference delegates waiting for the roundtable discussion to begin

Update: A news piece on the conference has appeared on the the University of Surrey’s website: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/surreys-centennial-reflection-womens-suffrage-and-arts

Several postgraduate research students have contributed reviews to the conference website: https://suffragecentennial.wordpress.com/reviews/

See also the reviews on the School of Literature and Language’s website: http://blogs.surrey.ac.uk/english/2018/08/02/looking-back-at-centennial-reflections-on-womens-suffrage-and-the-arts-local-national-transnational/

Update: An article co-authored by Dr Wiley and Dr Amy Zigler, entitled ‘The Suffragette Movement and the Music of Ethel Smyth: The String Quartet and The Boatswain’s Mate’, is available on the Exploring Surrey’s Past website: https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/womens-suffrage/suffrage-biographies/dame-ethel-smyth-composer-and-suffragette/the-suffragette-movement-and-the-music-of-ethel-smyth-the-string-quartet-and-the-boatswains-mate/

Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at conference on biography at the University of Nottingham

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1200px-University_of_Nottingham_logo.svgDr Christopher Wiley has presented a paper at the multi-disciplinary conference ‘Biography and Public History: Constructing Historical Narratives through Life-Writing’, held in the Department of Music at the University of Nottingham on Wednesday 20 June 2018.

Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Anecdote as a Genre in Musical Biography’, drew primarily on his recent research on Victorian life-writing, while also discussing the foundational role of anecdote within musical biography from its advent at the turn of the nineteenth century onwards.

Proposing that biographical anecdote warrants recognition as a genre in its own right given its extraordinary staying power and the sophisticated narratives that developed around specific examples, Dr Wiley demonstrated its potential to contribute to a greater understanding of associated culture through the recounting of stories of its most cherished figures.

The one-day conference was attended by some 50 international delegates. Dr Wiley also chaired the opening session, which featured papers on archaeology, buildings architecture, and literature.

Further information may be found at the conference webpage: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-arts/humanities/music/biography-and-public-history/biography-and-public-history.aspx

The full conference programme is available online here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/humanities/departments/music/documents/2018/final-programme.pdf

Dr Christopher Wiley gives paper on musical biography at Edinburgh Napier University

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EdNapUni_redDr Christopher Wiley has delivered a paper on musical biography at the ‘Music and Literature: Innovations, Intersections, and Interpretations’ conference hosted at Merchiston CampusEdinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland on 14-15 June 2018.

Entitled ‘Musical biography and the (non-)consonance of music and literature’, Dr Wiley’s paper revealed how biographical narratives might actually contradict the evidence of the music itself, or they may represent an appropriation of specific works for a given time and place, or function to promote them within wider reading communities who may otherwise be unfamiliar with that music.

Dr Wiley drew case studies from his wider research conducted over the years on musical biography, including the apocryphal story of Mozart’s Requiem, the earliest 12 volumes of the ‘Master Musicians’ series, and Ethel Smyth’s autobiographies. The two-day conference was attended by some 50 delegates.

Further information may be found at the conference website: https://musicandliteratureconference.wordpress.com/

The full programme for the event is available online here: https://musicandliteratureconference.wordpress.com/programme/

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Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at women’s suffrage conference at Royal Holloway, University of London

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largelondonrgbDr Christopher Wiley has addressed the ‘Education, College Women, and Suffrage: International Perspectives’ conference held at his alma mater, Royal Holloway, University of London, on 13–14 June 2018.

Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Gender Studies and Multi-Disciplinary Teaching: A Case Study of Ethel Smyth, Music, and the Suffragette Movement’, discussed the challenges presented by the delivery of tuition in gender studies within higher education contexts given the necessarily interdisciplinary nature of the field.

Presenting to an audience that itself encompassed a wide variety of different arts disciplines and educational backgrounds, Dr Wiley illustrated his arguments by drawing on his current research on the relationship between Ethel Smyth, her suffrage activity, and her opera The Boatswain’s Mate.

Organized by The Bedford Centre for the History of Women and Gender at Royal Holloway in conjunction with the Centre for the History of Women’s Education at the University of Winchester, the two-day conference attracted some 60 delegates.

Further information is available at the conference website: https://educationcollegewomenandsuffrage.wordpress.com/

The full programme may be viewed online here: https://educationcollegewomenandsuffrage.wordpress.com/programme/

Dr Christopher Wiley presents paper at Popular Music Education Symposium at Western University, Ontario, Canada

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Dr Christopher Wiley addressed the inaugural ‘Progressive Methods in Popular Music Education’ Symposium at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, on Friday 8 June 2018, presenting remotely via video-conference link from his office at the University of Surrey.

Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘From Research-led Teaching to Teaching-led Research: Keeping Curricula Contemporary in Higher Education Popular Music’, discussed the relationship between teaching and research in twenty-first-century UK higher education, with specific reference to his delivery of an undergraduate module on Adele’s 25 album.

A previous version of his presentation had been given at an international conference at the Institute of Musical Research, London (UK) in April 2018, focussing on the use of autoethnography as the principal methodology for the study rather than (as at this conference) on the pedagogy of popular music education and the curriculum design itself.

The two-day Symposium was hosted by the Don Wright Faculty of Music, concurrently with MayDay Group Colloquium 30. Together, the two events attracted a diverse line-up of presenters as well as over 100 registered delegates.

Further information about the ‘Progressive Methods in Popular Music Education’ Symposium is available online: http://www.music.uwo.ca/outreach/symposium-on-progressive-methods.html

The conference programme may be downloaded here: http://www.music.uwo.ca/outreach/images-pdf/mayday-progressive-methods-conference-program-2018.pdf

And presenter abstracts and biographies are available here: http://www.music.uwo.ca/outreach/images-pdf/PM-Abstracts-Fri.pdf

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Dr Christopher Wiley gives talk on Ethel Smyth for Surrey Local History Symposium at Surrey History Centre

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Surrey History CentreDr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk entitled Dame Ethel Smyth, Ground-breaking Composer, Writer, and Suffragette’ at the Annual Symposium of Surrey Local History Committee on Saturday 21 April 2018.

The one-day symposium, whose theme was The Changing Role of Women’, featured presentations from five speakers who work in areas of local history. Organized by a committee of Surrey Archaeological Society, the event was held at Surrey History Centre, Woking, and attracted around 40 audience members from across the county.

In addition to his internationally recognized academic research, Dr Wiley has previously spoken on Ethel Smyth at a range of local history events in the Surrey area, including talks at The Lightbox, Woking, The Guildford Institute, and at Smyth’s childhood home in Frimley Green.

The programme for the Surrey Local History Symposium is available at the following links:

Surrey History Centre – https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/heritage-culture-and-recreation/archives-and-history/surrey-history-centre/heritage-events

Surrey Archeological Society – https://www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk/content/changing-role-of-women-surrey-local-history-symposium

Celebrate Woking – https://www.celebratewoking.info/events/annual-symposium-changing-role-of-women

Dr Christopher Wiley organizes and presents paper at major international conference at the Institute of Musical Research, London

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Dr Christopher Wiley has organized the two-day international conference, ‘Beyond “Mesearch”: Autoethnography, Self-Reflexivity, and Personal Experience as Academic Research in Music Studies’, held at the Institute of Musical Research, University of London, on 16-17 April 2018.

The conference, which was supported by the Institute of Musical Research as well as the University of Surrey, drew strong interest from a large international delegation of around 80 participants from across the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia.

It featured three keynote addresses and 20 papers arranged in a series of parallel sessions, together with an innovative group discussion session (which may form a model to be adopted more widely at future conferences in music studies) in which delegates separated into smaller breakout groups led by a senior academic before reporting back to the conference.

Dr Wiley also chaired a number of sessions and facilitated discussions on a range of topics, as well as delivering his paper ‘From Research-led Teaching to Teaching-led Research: An autoethnographic enquiry into keeping curricula contemporary in higher education popular music’, elements of which have previously been presented at academic forums in both music and education studies.

This event followed the success of the multi-disciplinary conference recently co-organized by Dr Wiley, Writing About Contemporary Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities’, held at the University of Surrey from 20-22 October 2017.

Dr Wiley previously co-organized a two-day international conference, ‘Musical Biography: National Ideology, Narrative Technique, and the Nature of Myth’, at the Institute of Musical Research in April 2015.

Further information about the ‘Beyond “Mesearch”’ conference may be found at the website: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/department-music-media/research/autoethnography-and-self-reflexivity-music-studies

The full programme, including abstracts, is available here: https://chris-wiley.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/imr-beyond-mesearch-conference-programme-16-17-april-2018.pdf

 

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