5th Annual F-List Research Conference: “SPEAK OUT! WOMEN’S VOICES IN MUSIC”
Wednesday, 20 May 2026 – Thursday, 21 May 2026. Hosted by Leeds Conservatoire, at the Leeds City Museum (hybrid).
The F-List Gender in Music Research Hub (the Research Hub) is organising its Fifth Annual Research Conference, to be held between Wednesday, 20 May 2026 and Thursday, 21 May 2026. This research conference will be a two-day event, held in person, co-hosted by Leeds Conservatoire and The F-List for Music, at Leeds City Museum. There will also be the possibility of joining us online (a hybrid event). The Research Hub has been founded to increase knowledge by conducting research into gender inequality in music.
Tickets available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/speak-out-the-5th-annual-f-list-research-conference-20-21-may-26-leeds-tickets-1984285091123
What is happening?
The F-List Research Hub is a growing collective of feminist and interdisciplinary researchers, dedicated to evidence-led activism which aims to create an environment where women and gender-diverse people in the music industries will be able to more successfully start and sustain their music careers for longer. At present there are over 90 researchers listed on the registry.
This year’s theme “Speak Out! Women’s voices in Music.” is broadly exploring all aspects of women’s voices in music, and our ability to Speak Out, in the way that we want to, in any given moment in time. There are several themes and developments that have inspired our theme this year, including:
• Content control and commercial imperatives: women and gender-diverse people in music have always been told what to look like, and what to sound like. We were told of “the canon” or “music that sells,” or “music for radio” or the “tastes of the listeners,” as if they are objective, value-free forces. Finding our artistic voice in the world of commercial rules in music, has been challenging for many.
• Free speech and creative freedom: we are also living in times, where free speech is tested and the balance with finding our artistic voices, challenging to navigate. Free speech is undergoing multiple restrictions, in academia, society and the music sector, in an increasingly demanding global context.
• Pushback and protest: we are also finding that women’s rights causes are facing significant pushback and that true inclusivity and solidarity across marginalised genders is weaponised for multiple, often hidden agendas. Women’s rights organisations are seeing their funding taken away, and the UN Secretary General Guterres has warned of “masters of misogyny” and the “poison of patriarchy” slowing down, if not stopping all progress on gender equality (UN SDG5).
SCHEDULE for Wednesday, 20 May 2025
– DAY 1 –
08:15-09:00 Registration and welcome (with Coffee)
09:00-09:15 Welcome Address: tbc (Leeds Conservatoire and The F-List)
09:15-10:15 KEYNOTE (60 minutes)
When Touch Teaches: Consent, Power, and Creative Practice.
Becca Barrett and Lucinda Allen.
10:15-10:30 Comfort Break
10:30-12:00 Practice Research I (90 minutes) Our Humanity, for Better or Worse.
Led by Sophie Daniels.
Patricia Duffy: Being Serafina: How dramaturgy can amplify human perspectives in songwriting.
Stephanie Pearl: Kate Bush and the Washing Machine: Beats Around the Bush DJ Set By Pearlie PhDJ.
Sharon Martin: What insight can collaborative songwriting bring into women’s lived experience of gambling?
12:00-12:15 Comfort Break
12:15-13:15 Workshop I (60 minutes):
WIRED Research and Toolkit: with Dr Eddie Dobson
With Eddie Dobson (Yorkshire Sound Women Network)
13:15-14:15 Lunch (F-List Networking Event)
14:15-15:45 Roundtable I (90 minutes)
“In Conversation with Neighbourhood Voices – Building Community and Taking Up Space”
Moderated by Gina Walters and Liv Muir.
15:45-16:00 Comfort Break
16:00-17:00 Roundtable II (60 minutes)
“Amplifying voices: Mental Health, Empowerment & Support for Female Music Students at Leeds Conservatoire”
Bethany Milner (Student Wellbeing Adviser, Access and Participation); Daniela Bonitz (Group HE Student Health and Wellbeing Manager); Erin McCafferty (Students’ Union President); and Mya Mistry (Third-year Pop student). The panel will be chaired by Mariam Kauser.
17:00-17:15 Comfort Break
17:15-18:45 Research Papers I (90 minutes):
Moderated by: tbc.
Jess Blaise Ward: Yorkshire Sound Women(+) Network Using Gear and Building Communities: Addressing Gender Inequalities in Yorkshire and Beyond
Marjan Wynia: Between Boundaries and Belonging: Informal Workplace Cultures as Sites of Power Reproduction and Exclusion Mechanisms
Maren Hancock: From Régine to Joanie Labine: Voice, Absence, and the Gendering of DJ History.
Ruth Clark, Elysha Clay and Laura Johnson: Where are the women? 60 years of Leeds Conservatoire.
18:45-20:15 Evening Documentary Screening
Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands (2024)
Directors: Carla J Easton and Blair Young.
18:00-21:00 Evening Networking at the Leeds Rooftop Bar
SCHEDULE for Thursday, 21 May 2026
– DAY 2 –
08:00-09:00 Sunrise Audio Walk (60 minutes)
Wellbeing Workshop: tbc.
With Laura Reid.
08:45-09:15 Registration (with Coffee)
09:15-10:45 Research Papers II (75 minutes)
Moderated by tbc (affiliation)
Vick Bain: “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves” Sister Organizations: Feminist Grassroots Initiatives in a Misogynistic Music Economy.
Grace Goodwin: GENIE: Spreadsheets as activism.
Lucy Rycroft-Smith (online): Transforming Educational Research into Musical Voice.
Metka Potočnik: Authorship and Authority in Music Copyright: the Girlfriend Problem.
10:45-11:00 Comfort Break
11:00-12:00 Roundtable III (45 minutes):
“Challenging Male Supremacy in Songwriting Creative Process”
Led by Sophie Daniels.
12:00-12:15 Comfort Break
12:15-13:15 Workshop II (60 minutes)
Doing it Together- How women in music apply radical empathy as an anchor for safer and more connected creative spaces.
With Rebecca (Becci) Wallace, Carla J Easton, Lauren Gilmour, and Josephine Sillars.
13:15-14:15 Lunch (F-List Networking Event)
14:15-15:45 Research Papers III (75 minutes):
Shelina Brown: Scream Against the Sky: Yoko Ono’s Voice at the 1969 Toronto Rock n Roll Revival.
Julia Lurfova: Queering the “universal” capacity to improvise.
Katie Shepherd: What Happened to the Heart?: Envoicing Ecofeminist Protest.
15:30-15:45 Comfort Break
15:45-16:30 Workshop III (45 minutes):
Non-Disclosure Agreements: What Should we Know?
Led by Independent Society of Musicians and The F-List for Music.
16:30-16:45 Comfort Break
16:45-18:15 Research Papers IV (90 minutes):
Sam Lou Talbot: She Grows Louder – ‘Content control and commercial imperatives’.
Katherine Williams: Invisible infrastructures and spatial power play in co-writing spaces. (might be online – subject to funding)
Eva Navarro Lopez and Thais Ruiz de Alda: Gender Music Metadata: A new community-based framework for music AI systems. (might be online)
Rebecca (Becci) Wallace and Lauren Gilmour: Becoming the Surface Others Orient To: Care and Gendered Labour in Music Practice and Education.
18:15-19:00 Closing, F-List Networking, with Music
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