The Vermont-based jam band Phish is just coming off a run at the new Las Vegas Sphere and are embarking on their summer tour.
The band, formed in 1983, has a signature sound that includes rock arrangements infused with a variety of musical genres, as well as a significant fanbase.
While the band doesn’t have any Oregon stops on their tour in 2024, there is an upcoming gathering of so called “Phishheads”: it’s the second ever Phish Studies Conference at Oregon State University.
The conference will feature more than 60 people speaking on panels and showcasing art, posters, and publications. Topics include Phish fan identity, Phish musical influences and techniques, public health issues related to Phish events, and academic publishing of Phish research. In the evenings, Corvallis venue Bombs Away Café will host concerts by Oregon bands.
This year’s conference will be co-hosted by the Mockingbird Foundation, a nonprofit run by Phish fans to raise money for music education across the U.S.
The original Phish Studies Conference was held in 2019, the brainchild of OSU Philosophy Professor Stephanie Jenkins.
Ahead of this year’s conference, KLCC’s Love Cross sat down with Jenkins to learn more.
She began by asking her to explain what inspired the inception of the Phish Studies Conference, which included a trip to a Phish concert in Washington State.
Stephanie Jenkins: I've been teaching a philosophy class about Phish at Oregon State University since 2014. And in that process, I started meeting all sorts of scholars who were working in the field of Phish studies. I took my students on a field trip to the Gorge Amphitheater in 2018, and I reached out to some of those scholars and put together a mini-conference on the campground at the Gorge Amphitheater for my students. And when I looked at the schedule and realized what an incredible opportunity it was for my students, I opened it up to the fans that were at the concert and approximately 100 Phish fans came over the course of the afternoon and I realized that there was a desire in the community for Phish studies. We decided to move forward with the Phish Studies Conference at Oregon State University that academic year.
Love Cross: So can you tell us about any keynote speakers panels or presentations that you're particularly excited about for this year's conference?
Jenkins: Well, our program is so diverse that there is something for everybody. There's a range of topics going from health, philosophy, law, business, spirituality, activism, politics, and statistics. There's a presentation on music therapy for women with cancer, for example. There's a presentation on how Phish helped pioneer online live music communities. And there's also a presentation from the Mockingbird Foundation about the grants that they give for music education for children.
Cross: I was thinking about how the interdisciplinary collaboration is unique in something like this. And it seems kind of crucial to understanding Phish’s multifaceted influence. And so I'm curious to know how you facilitate that, that intersection of all of these different disciplines in one place.
Jenkins: The amazing thing about Phish studies is how interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary it is. It's the most academically diverse conference I have ever been to. There's a neuroscientist, there's someone who works in public health, there's an economist, there are statistics, there are people who work in communications, they are philosophers. You name it, it's there. And so it creates an obstacle in terms of working together because we all have different academic disciplines that we're working from and different methodologies that we use, but what we share in common is the band. So we have that shared language and it allows us to work across disciplines and share knowledge through that shared language. And so we've learned so much from each other for that particular reason.
Cross: That just seems fascinating and I can't help draw the parallels between that and just the dedicated fan base that Phish has. It's known for passion and engagement and can also be a little quirky and it pulls people together from all different walks of life. So I'm guessing that you're seeing those parallels as well, not just in academia, but also across the spectrum when it comes to the Phish fan base.
Jenkins: Yeah. So fans come to the conference and that's what's amazing about it too, is it's not just diversity academically, but it's diversity in terms of who comes to the conference. So we have fans who work outside of academia who come to the conference. So have to explain not just to other academics but also to non-academics, the research that we're doing. It's such an incredible cauldron for creativity for that reason.
Cross: And the first Phish Studies Conference was a success. So how do you envision the evolution or expansion of the conference in the future?
Jenkins: The first Phish Studies Conference in 2019, established the field of Phish studies in 2024. We're going to see an expansion of Phish studies that builds upon the project that started in 2019. And it's going to push the boundaries of Phish studies.
The Phish Studies Conference which takes place May 17-19 at Oregon State University in Corvallis.
