What is the democratizing potential of participatory music practices? Professor Stamatis draws on her extensive ethnographic research in the Rebetiki Istoria music club in Athens and is in dialogue with the writings of political theorist Chantal Mouffe that harness critical artistic practices in the public sphere to the realization of agonistic democracy. Using the participatory music practices of Rebetiki Istoria, she develops Mouffe’s work to better understand under which conditions counterhegemonic music practices engender agonism. She suggests that its music practices offer a framework for overcoming fundamental shortcomings of agonistic theory and demonstrate the possibility for agonistic peace as a dynamic equilibrium between the constitutive political tensions of liberal democracy.

Yona Stamatis is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Illinois Springfield, Director of the Music Program, and Chair of the Department of Art, Music and Theatre. Her research interests center on music and social justice with a focus on Greek folk and popular song. She has published many articles and has a book in progress. Her research has been supported by the Fulbright Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and Constantine A Tsangadas Fellowship for Hellenic Studies. She is the music editor for Ergon: Greek/American & Diaspora Arts and Letters. Her doctorate in musicology is from the University of Michigan in 2011. She is a violinist and a bouzouki player in the early rebetiko style.