The annual SEM meeting is coming up and there are a number of sessions on the 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 Guilnard Moufarrej with any additions or corrections.)

Thursday, Oct. 28

Program session 1: Thursday 8:00 – 10:00am

Musical Biography and the Writing of Critical Socio-Musical Histories in Iran and the Arab World

Chair: Virginia Danielson, New York University

  • 8:00 “Constructing ‘Middle Eastern Music’ in 1920s America: Prince Mohiuddin’s Travels to New York City, 1924-1932” Gabriel Lavin, University of California at Los Angeles
  • 8:30 “Dahi bin Walid: The Whitewash of an Enslaved Music Pioneer” Hazem Jamjoum, New York University
  • 9:00 “Munira al-Mahdiyya: An Audible Biography of One Woman’s Music-making in Early Twentieth Century Egypt” Yara Salahiddeen, Oxford University
  • 9:30 “Remembering Jewish Musicians in Iran: The Case of Morteza Neidavoud” Moshen Mohammadi, University of California at Los Angeles

Music in Digital Worlds: Power, Violence, and Ethics

  • 9:00 “Expanding Music Streaming Scholarship Beyond the West: Producing Diversity, Dependency, and Digital Orientalism through Streaming Services in Egypt” Darci Sprengel, University of Oxford

Program session 2: Thursday 10:45am – 12:15pm

New Materialism

Chair: Michael Frishkopf, University of Alberta

  • 10:45 “The Call to Prayer and the Sonic Materiality of Displacement in Amman Jordan” Melissa Scott, University of California at Berkeley
  • 11:45 “Modal Music Revisited: Hearing and Sensing Home in Tunisia and the Mediterranean” Jared Holton, University of California at Santa Barbara

Program session 3: Thursday 1:45 - 3:45pm

Participatory Spaces

  • 1:45 “‘Irony and Hypocrisy’: The Spectacular Failure of the Jordan Festival” Jeremy Reed, Indiana University at Bloomington

Friday, October 29

Program session 5: 8:30 - 10:30am

Relational Ethnographies of Music in Public Policy

Chair: Kendra Salois, American University

  • 9:30 “Music and Humanitarianism in Za’atari Refugee Camp” Graihagh Cordwell, University of Oxford

Program session 6: 10:45am - 12:15 pm

Ethnomusicology and Children’s Musical Performance Studies

  • 11:45 “From Syria to Sweden: Young Refugees, ‘Homeland Music,’ and the Complexities of Inclusion in Sweden’s Music-and-Arts Schools” Carrie Danielson, Florida State University

Program session 7: 1:45 - 3:45 pm

Music and Remembrance

  • 1:45 “Confronting Urbicide through Song: Memories from Bustan al-Qasr, East Aleppo” Clara Wenz, Hebrew University at Jerusalem

Voice, Politics, and Performance

  • 4:30 “Lagu Mekkawi: The Meccan Modes, Saudi Soft Power, and the Modulation of Quranic Melody” Anne Rasmussen, William and Mary

Saturday, October 30

Roundtable: From Social Networking to Community Interventions: Music’s Role in Health and Wellbeing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Chair: Felicia K Youngblood, Western Washington University

  • 10:45 “Music Connectivity and Creativity in Syrian Refugee Camps During the COVID-19 Pandemic” Guilnard Moufarrej, United States Naval Academy

World Music Pedagogy Workshop

  • 11:15 “‘Yalla, Let’s Make Music! Arab Music Activities for Grades 3-8’” Anne Elise Thomas, Visiting Assistant Professor, Sweet Briar College

12:15 - 1:45 pm

Society for Arab Music Research

  • 12:15-12:45 Business Meeting
  • 12:45-1:45 Guest Speaker: Mustafa Sa’id

Sunday, October 31

Program session 12: 10:45 am - 12:15 pm

Optimism and Musical Futurity

Chair: Nour El Rayes, University of California at Berkeley

  • 10:45 “Belligerence and Melancholy: Sounding Optimistic Futurity in Lebanon’s Post-Civil-Wars Alternative Music” Nour El Rayes, University of California at Berkeley

Program session 13: 12:30 - 2:30 pm

Popular Music and Media Flows Shaping Afro Asian Cultural Spaces from Lebanon to Morocco to Ghana

Chair: George H Murer, Hunter College

  • 1:00 “The Politics and Poetics of Detachment: Moroccan comedic media platforms and the lampooning of trans-Arab world pop culture flows from Emo to K-Pop” George H Murer, Hunter College
  • 1:30 “Constructing Arabness on the Transnational Vocal Talent Competition Arab Idol” Insia Malik, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
  • Discussant: Andrew J Eisenberg, NYU Abu Dhabi