meLê Admin
Layan Nijem, DeCoSEAS Project Coordinator, will be an inspirational speaker at the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EuroSEAS) 2024 conference! On 24 July at 08:30 (CET), Layan will speak about the experiences of Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives—Decoseas. Please come and listen!
Abstract:
Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS) is a three-year research and community engagement project. DeCoSEAS employs a paradigm-shifting methodological approach focused on hearing and listening as dialogical modes of knowledge formation. The project strives for the inclusion of voices, stances, and interpretations that have hitherto remained unheard in existing discourses about heritage by attending to multiple, time-bound, and intricately entangled voices simultaneously (those recorded from the past and those from SE Asian partners today).
This presentation reflects on the project’s achievements, highlighting its methodologies, partnerships, and impacts. Through collaborative approaches to sound archives in/from Southeast Asia, the presentation outlines DeCoSEAS’ commitment to decolonization in actuality beyond mere theorization.
About the Inspirational Speaker:
Layan Nijem (they/them) is the Project Coordinator of the transnational research project Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS). They served as the interim co-curator of the Jaap Kunst Sound Collection at the University of Amsterdam between 2022 and 2024 due to the sick leave of Dr. Barbara Titus. In the academic year 2023-2024, Layan was a co-organizer of the Documenting Audabilities film series at the musicology department of the University of Amsterdam. The series screens films that trace sonic acts and interrogate the inscription of sound onto other mediums.
