Punk Women: Exploring Underground Music Scenes

Laura Way, Associate Tutor for Sociology and Health & Social Care at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), had the opportunity to attend the KISMIF international conference in July.

Now in its fourth year, KISMIF is organised by the University of Porto and stands for ‘Keep it Simple, Make it Fast’. With a focus on underground music scenes and ‘do-it-yourself’ culture, this year’s specialist theme was ‘Gender, Differences, Identities and DIY Cultures’. KISMIF prides itself on being the opposite of a ‘run of the mill’ conference, instead going above and beyond to offer an experience to attendees.

To encourage diverse and innovative discussions the conference programme was packed full of talks, musical showcases, documentary screenings, gigs and DJ sets, parallel paper sessions, book launches and cultural activities stretching until the early hours.

As part of the vibrant programme Laura presented a paper which drew upon elements of her doctoral research:

“My PhD research more broadly concerns older punk women’s construction and maintenance of identity, exploring issues concerning gender, subcultural identification and ageing.

"My conference paper focused specifically on gig attendance amongst my sample of older punk women and explored the push/pull factors which were reflexively considered in the context of attending live music shows. I was able to gain peer feedback and overall the conference provided a valuable international platform in which to share my research”

The paper will be published in a special issue of the Punk & Post Punk journal in 2019.

Staff and students at BGU are regularly invited to present at conferences around the world, you can follow all their travels on our news page and find out how you can start your own adventures on our course pages.