Voices for Choice: Songs of the Irish Reproductive Rights and Repeal the Eighth Movement

A lecture by Dr Laura Watson (Maynooth University) for the Music Composition Centre Talks.

Dr Laura Watson is Associate Professor of Music at Maynooth University. She holds a PhD from Trinity College Dublin, a first-class honours degree from the University of Liverpool, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education. Laura is a musicologist with expertise in areas of twentieth-century and twenty-first-century music – specifically, women and music in Ireland, popular music, and early twentieth-century French music. Her current research focuses on women and contemporary popular music in Ireland. 

Recent publications include the co-edited book Women and Music in Ireland (Boydell, 2022), and chapters in several essay collections published this year – namely Debussy in Context (Cambridge University Press), the Routledge Companion to Women and Musical Leadership (Routledge), and Kylie Minogue: Critical Insights into Pop Music and Media Celebrity (Bloomsbury). 

Laura has recently concluded her role as an International Research Collaborator on the Women’s Musical Leadership Online Network (January 2022 – November 2023), which was a project funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Before that, Laura was a founding member of the collective Sounding the Feminists, which campaigned for gender equality in Irish music from 2017–23 and initiated partnerships with organisations such as the National Concert Hall and the Contemporary Music Centre. She has featured as guest contributor to radio programmes in Ireland and the UK. She currently serves on the editorial boards of Irish Musical Studies and the Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland (JSMI). 

Please indicate if you have any access requirements, such as ISL/English interpreting, so that we can facilitate you in attending this event. Contact: rigakie@tcd.ie