A Journal of Critical Humanities and Socially Engaged Arts
ISSN 3057-5605 | DOI 10.26238/3057-5605
Witnessing is an inter- and multi-disciplinary annual journal that explores the nexus of history, music, sound, memory, conflict, violence, culture, and the environment. Drawing on oral history, sound and trauma studies, the journal introduces new perspectives on the process of bearing witness, putting emphasis on the dialogical process it entails but also the responsibility of responding in ways that open a public debate. Exploring the intersection of politics, ethics, aesthetics, and history, the journal aims to cultivate a space for critical thinking and critical o/auralities. It encourages the engagement with sonic and auditory experiences, practices, and epistemologies with regard to the study of the past and present. In doing so, it aims to inform collective perceptions about listening, music, sound, violence, resistance, and marginalization, rupturing and transgressing the boundaries of national archives and archives of violence.
Witnessing is driven by a shared desire to reclaim and re-politicize ethics in research and artistic practices in response to the bleak sociopolitical moment we find ourselves in: far-right ideologies, racism, nationalism, and violence are spiralling against a wide range of Others, while acute environmental crises and war are raging. It is our belief that the notion of witnessing cannot be fully grasped by one discipline single-handedly but requires the methodological tools and practices of many. We are particularly interested in interdisciplinary and/or multidisciplinary approaches from a wide range of fields across the humanities, arts, and social sciences, including: history, musicology, ethnomusicology, social anthropology, philosophy, sound studies, gender studies, environmental studies, migration studies, postcolonial studies, critical theory, media and memory studies, art criticism, and artistic practice.
We welcome contributions and collaborations from scholars, theorists, researchers, artists, and activists. The journal is multimodal, offering a wide range of formats, including scholarly articles, short essays, reflective audio essays, creative non-fiction, interviews, and reviews. Witnessing is an open access journal, whose content is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Anna Papaeti, Founder and Editor
Witnessing has received funding from the European Research Council in the context of the ERC Consolidator Grant MUTE – Soundscapes of Trauma: Music, Sound, and the Ethics of Witnessing (Horizon 2020; grant agreement no. 101002720).
We would like to thank the European Research Council as well as our host, the Institute of Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation, for making this endeavour possible.
Athena Athanasiou is Professor of Social Anthropology at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. She is also a member of ERC MUTE.
Martin Daughtry is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Sound at New York University. He is also a member of ERC MUTE.
Magda Fytili is a Ramón y Cajal Postdoctoral Researcher at Complutense University, Madrid. She is also a member of ERC MUTE.
Kristina Gedgaudaite is Assistant Professor at the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Vienna.
Morag Josephine Grant is Chancellor’s Fellow in Music at the University of Edinburgh.
Nelli Kambouri is Assistant Professor of Methodologies of Social Research at the Social Anthropology Department at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, and a member of ERC MUTE.
Kostis Kornetis is Assistant Professor in Contemporary History at the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Eleni Kyramargiou is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Historical Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation.
Leandros Kyriakopoulos is Assistant Professor of Sociology of Techno-Scientific Cultures at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a member of ERC MUTE.
Brandon LaBelle is an artist, writer, and theorist working with sound. He is the founding editor of Errant Bodies Press, Berlin, and the initiator of the Listening Academy. He is also a member of ERC MUTE.
Iris Lykourioti is an architect and an artist. She is Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Thessaly.
Maria Margaroni is Associate Professor at the English Department of the University of Cyprus.
Panayiotis Panopoulos is Associate Professor of Anthropology of Music and Dance at the University of the Aegean. He is also a member of ERC MUTE.
Anna Papaeti is a musicologist and the Principal Investigator of ERC MUTE at the National Hellenic Research Foundation. She is Founder and Editor of Witnessing: A Journal of Critical Humanities and Socially Engaged Arts.
Dimitris Papanikolaou is Professor of Modern Greek and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Oxford.
Gene Ray is a critical theorist and Associate Professor at the Critical Curatorial Cybermedia Master Program at the University of Art and Design (HEAD), Geneva. He is also a member of ERC MUTE.
Danae Stefanou is Associate Professor of Musicology and Sound Studies at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Eftychia Georgakopoulou
Christoforos Vradis
PI Anna Papaeti
National Hellenic Research Foundation
