The annual SEM meeting in Albuquerque is coming up and there are a number of sessions on the latest preliminary program related to Arab music, Islamic traditions, and the Middle East. Here are some to keep an eye out for. (Check back for updates and email Christopher Witulski with any additions or corrections.)

Listings for other days: Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Sunday 8:30 am to 10:30 am

11A: Alvarado A

  • 9:30 Ziryab and Us: The (A)political Currency of Arab-Andalusian musical myth Matthew Machin-Autenrieth, University of Cambridge

11J: Weavers

  • 9:00 Open Wings and Old Motherlands: Stories of Refugee Flight in Assyrian Narrative Song Nadia Younan, University of Toronto

11K: Turquoise

Musical Tradition and Modernity in Iranian National Identity Chair: Mark Kligman, University of California, Los Angeles

  • 8:30 Traditional Modernities: Modern Discourses on Traditional Iranian Modal System Mohsen Mohammadi, University of California, Los Angeles
  • 9:00 The Dispute over Microtones: Aesthetics and Identity in Iranian Classical Music Solmaz Shakerifard, University of Washington
  • 9:30 A Musical Repatriation: Tracing the Resurgence of the Barbat in Iran Behzad Namazi, Ohio University
  • 10:00 Discussant Mark Kligman, University of California, Los Angeles

Sunday 10:45 am to 12: 15 pm

12F: Alvarado F

  • 10:45 “Shakira Taught Us Our History!”: Belly Dance and Belonging Amongst Syrian Argentines Andrea Shaheen, University of Texas at El Paso