A new issue of Music and Arts in Action (MAiA) is now online. This is a theme issue focusing on the role of the arts and music in conflict transformation and peace building, covering a wide range of topics that are examined using novel case studies.

The topics range from power, politics and identity issues in an Israeli-Arabic orchestra by Solveig Riiser; the role of sing-alongs in sustaining anti-war movements in the U.S. by Jeneve Brooks; cultural identity theory as unpacked in action research in Craig Robertson's ethnographic study of a Bosnian multi-ethnic choir; the bureaucratic constraints on evaluating community theatre interventions in Northern Ireland by Matthew Jennings and Andrea Baldwin; and the combination of academic and practitioner intervention in conflict transformation work by Svanibor Pettan's look at applied ethnomusicology. A guest editorial by Arild Bergh and John Sloboda provides a review of the field and discusses the papers in this issue within the context of the challenges that the field of music and conflict transformation faces.

The papers in this issue together make an exciting and robust contribution to empirical work in this emerging research area. To read the complete issue online go here.

Music and Arts in Action (MAiA), a peer reviewed, multi-disciplinary journal, invites submissions on the topic of music and the arts in health promotion and wellness. We are therefore interested in papers with strong empirical data that can provide new practical, theoretical or philosophical insights into problems and opportunities with regards to emerging practices around the arts and health.

Deadline for papers is 15th August 2010. Full details can be found here.

The SocArts groups at Exeter is a vibrant research community researching a range of areas where music and arts is used in different social situations. We discuss a lot of our research vie email, if you would like to join the discussion on any of our mailing lists, click "Read more" and select the relevant list and fill in your details. We look forward to hearing from you.

The past few months have been busy at SocArts. In December 2009 Sophia Acord passed her viva (the UK equivalent of a defense) with her thesis "Beyond the Code: Unpacking Tacit Knowledge and Embodied Cognition in the Practical Action of Curating Contemporary Art". In January 2010 it was Ian Sutherland'sturn when he defended his thesis "Composers' strategies in Nazi Germany". Finally in March 2010 Arild Berghpassed his viva with the thesis "I’d like to teach the world to sing: Music and conflict transformation". Congratulations to all!

In total four of our PhD students have now concluded their studies in Exeter. However, they are still involved in the SocArts group, and there are still 8 active students working on a range of studies related to music in everyday life.