The annual SEM meeting in Bloomington 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: Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Thursday 8:30 am - 10:30 am

1A: Georgian

Spaces of Arab American Musical Life Chair: Christopher Witulski, Bowling Green State University

Sponsored by the Society for Arab Music Research

  • 8:30 Performing Arab-America: The Archbishop Samuel David’s Legacy, Memory, and Liturgy Christopher Witulski, Bowling Green State University; Michael Ibrahim, National Arab Orchestra
  • 9:00 From Egypt to America and Back: The Local vs. the Global in the Music of American Belly Dance Ann Lucas, Boston College
  • 9:30 Mutrib with a Big Muff: Heaviness in Post-Tarab Music Michael Figueroa, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • 10:00 Discussant Anne Rasmussen, College of William & Mary

1I: Sassafras

  • 9:30 What Women Want: Jewish Women’s Singing Voices at Jerusalem’s Western Wall Mili Leitner, University of Chicago
  • 10:00 The “Polyphonica” Choir: Singing Communitas with Refugees on Lesvos, Greece Yona Stamatis, University of Illinois Springfield

1K: Solarium

  • 9:00 Singing for the Sake of God: Economic Rationalization of Shia Mourning Rituals in Iran Hamidreza Salehyar, University of Toronto

Thursday 10:45 am - 12:15 pm

2C: Georgian

  • 10:45 Arab Music and Trauma on the U.S.-Mexico Border Andrea Shaheen Espinosa, University of Texas at El Paso
  • 11:15 At the Threshold of Mortality: Musical Remembrances of Trauma and Death Liliana Carrizo, Harvard University

2L: Sassafras

  • 10:45 “This Path Leads to Eternity!”: Azerbaijani Mugham, the Effect of Eşq, and the Post-Soviet Identities Polina Dessiatnitchenko, Harvard University
  • 11:15 In Search of Salim’s Fandangos: Judeo-Maghrebi Identities in Flamenco Fusion Aesthetics Brian Oberlander, Independent Scholar

Thursday 12:30 pm - 1:00 pm

Pop-Up Concert

  • Salaam Traditional and original Middle Eastern music by acclaimed Bloomington band and musical ambassadors for peaceful coexistence

Thursday 1:45 pm - 3:45 pm

3F: Redbud

Rethinking the Collective in Music after the Arab Spring: Communities, Nations, Diasporas Chair: Anne Rasmussen, College of William & Mary

Sponsored by the Society for Arab Music Research

  • 1:45 Celebrating and Selling the Nation: Festivals as Cultural Resource and Performance in Jordan Jeremy Reed, Indiana University, Bloomington
  • 2:15 Feminist Ethnomusicology, Coptic Popular Song, and Minority Belonging in Egypt Carolyn Ramzy, Carleton University
  • 2:45 Sounding Arabic: Postvernacular Modes of Performing the Arabic Language in Popular Music by Israeli Jews Oded Erez, Bar-Ilan University
  • 3:15 Applied Music or Experiential Learning? Arab Music Ensembles at North American Universities Anne Elise Thomas, Virginia Tech

3I: State Room East

Two Lecture/Performances Chair: David Borgo, University of California, San Diego

  • 1:45 “I am not a man or a woman:” Abida Parvin’s Career and Generic Innovation in the Style of Sindhi Sufi Kafi in Pakistan Shumaila Hemani University of Alberta
  • 2:45 Memory in Melody: The Place of Mohammad Omar’s Music in Contemporary Afghanistan Michael P. Lindsey, University of California, Santa Cruz

3L: Sassafras

  • 2:15 Before the Vineyards Burned: The Role of Kurdish Musicians in the Early Recording Industry in Iraq Jon Bullock, University of Chicago

Thursday 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

4C: Maple

  • 4:00 (W)rapping the Hijab: Hip-hop, Islam, and Femininity Aliah Ajamoughli, Indiana University Bloomington

4F: Walnut

Perspectives on Islam Chair: Karl J. Haas, Boston University

  • 4:00 Performing Pain: Emotion and Islamic Meaning in Sindhi Sufi Poetry Performance Brian Bond, The Graduate Center, CUNY
  • 4:30 The Songs of Afa Ajura: Digitizing Sounds, Texts, and Histories of mid-20th Century African Manuscripts Karl J. Haas, Boston University

Thursday 9:30 pm - 10:30 pm

Georgian

Lecture/Performance: Arab-Influenced UDM and the Politics of Music and Identity Jillian S. Fulton, York University

Sponsored by the Society for Arab Music Research