“Yeah, We All Here Tryna Flourish”: A Reflection on a Symposium on Eudaimonia and Music Learning

Gareth Dylan Smith

doi:10.32674/jimphe.v5i1.2510

Abstract

This article presents reflections on a symposium on eudaimonia and music learning, from the perspective of one of the organizers. The symposium had been planned as a traditional, in person event in the United States, but was held online in response to the Spring, 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The video-conferencing format created a more democratized liminal space that served to dissolve hierarchies and broaden participation.

Highlights

This article presents reflections on a symposium on eudaimonia and music learning, from the perspective of one of the organizers
We refunded all the pre-paid registration fees, cancelled the live music, hotel bookings, and campus catering, and advertised the event as open to all comers. This Brief essay joins a growing body of work that reflects on internet use in music learning (Cayari, 2020; Smith et al, 2020) and on video conferencing in academia more generally (Li et al, 2020)
I provide a brief introduction to eudaimonia, consider the symposium in terms of timing and context, my experience of tension vis a vis the concept of eudaimonia, and affordances of the online symposium context

Summary

Introduction

This article presents reflections on a symposium on eudaimonia and music learning, from the perspective of one of the organizers. Silverman and I had intended to hold the symposium in-person and on-campus at Montclair State University in New Jersey, but with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic it quickly became clear that this would not be possible, so we ran the event using Zoom.

Results

Conclusion