In their 2017 article “Resounding the Campus: Pedagogy, Race, and the Environment”, Amanda M. Black and Andrea F. Bohlman invoke the concept of “auditory scars”, the “results of acts of silencing past and present”.

This paper explores the concept of auditory scars from a slightly different perspective, thinking about what it means to listen to a historical space where people have experienced violence, trauma, and displacement due to war and other acts of violence.

I focus on the case of Tehran and the sonic legacy of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). I explore the sonic dimensions of conflict, including missile attacks and forced migration.

Drawing on archival materials, oral narratives, sonic memories, and personal conversations, I ask where such historical sounds go and how we might understand their resonances as auditory scars that continue to reverberate into the present day.

Laudan Nooshin is Professor of Music at City, University London.

Her research interests include urban sound studies, music and sound in Iranian cinema, music and youth culture in Iran, and creative processes in Iranian classical music.

She is currently working on a Leverhulme-funded project on the sounds of Tehran.

Laudan is, a Vice-President of the Royal Musical Association and co-founder of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Music Studies Network.