Conference Agenda

The Online Program of events for the SEM 2025 Annual Meeting appears below. This program is subject to change. The final program will be published in early October.

Use the search bar to search by name or title of paper/session. Note that this search bar does not search by keyword.

Click on the session name for a detailed view (with participant names and abstracts).

Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 26th Aug 2025, 07:04:46pm EDT

 
 
Session Overview
Location: M-106/107
Marquis Level 140
Date: Thursday, 23/Oct/2025
8:00am
-
10:00am
01E: Historical Soundscapes I
Location: M-106/107
Presenter: Hannah Laurel Rogers, Institute for Public Ethnomusicology
Presenter: Armaghan Fakhraeirad, University of Pennsylvania
Presenter: Özgür Balkılıç, Abdullah Gul University
Presenter: Haoran Jiang, Sun Yat-sen University
 

Mozambique!: Cuba’s Revolutionary Music on the International Stage, 1964-2025

Hannah Laurel Rogers

Institute for Public Ethnomusicology,



Arba'in 1401

Armaghan Fakhraeirad

University of Pennsylvania,



From Tradition Transmitters to Public Intellectuals: Changing Roles of Âşık/Alevi Musicians in Modern Turkey, 1960-1980

Özgür Balkılıç

Abdullah Gul University,



Performing Cold War Coalitions: Musical Cosmopolitanism in Taiwan’s Stars Gathering

Haoran Jiang

Department of Chinese (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-sen University

10:45am
-
12:15pm
02E: Singing Resistance and Solidarity: Counter-hegemonic Belonging through Jewish Diaspora Language Song
Location: M-106/107
Chair: Isabel Frey, University of Music and Performing Arts
 

Singing Resistance and Solidarity: Counter-hegemonic Belonging through Jewish Diaspora Language Song

Chair(s): Isabel Frey (University of Music and Performing Arts,)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Koplas as Resistance: The Ladino Liturgy of Reuven Eliyahu Israel in Seattle’s Sephardi Community

Lily Henley
N/A

 

“Everywhere We Gather Power”: Articulations of Blackness Through Yiddish Music

Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell
Mandel Institute for Nonprofit Leadership

 

Lider mit palestine: Articulating Jewish Solidarity with Palestinians through New Yiddish Song

Isabel Frey
University of Music and Performing Arts

12:30pm
-
1:30pm
Dance, Music, and Gesture Section Meeting
Location: M-106/107
1:45pm
-
3:45pm
03E: Decolonizing “Black” Genre: Navigating Femininity and Queerness in Performance Spaces Across the Diaspora
Location: M-106/107
Chair: Jordan Renee Brown
 

Decolonizing “Black” Genre: Navigating Femininity and Queerness in Performance Spaces Across the Diaspora

Chair(s): Maureen Mahon (New York University)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Hang like a Man: Gender and the Jazz Jam Session

Rebecca F. Zola
Columbia University

 

Centering Blackness at the Margins: Embodying Queerness through Alternative R&B

Jordan R. Brown
Harvard University

 

Her Beat, Her Story: Bridging Practice and Scholarship in African Musicology

Ruth S. Opara
Columbia University

 

We’re So (Emo)tional: Exploring Affect and the Erotic in Queer Black Women’s Participation in Emo Musicking

Victoria Smith
New York University

4:00pm
-
5:30pm
04E: Harmonizing Memory: Archives as Sites of Preservation and Resistance in Black Music
Location: M-106/107
Chair: Eric Galm, Trinity College
 

Harmonizing Memory: Archives as Sites of Preservation and Resistance in Black Music

Chair(s): Eric Galm (Trinity College,)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Preserving, Documenting and Expanding Access to Histories of Music at Historically Black Colleges and Universities through the HBCU Digital Library Trust

Andrea Jackson Gavin
HBCU Digital Library Trust, Harvard University

 

Post-Custodial Archiving and the Lloyd Best Archive: Decentering Custodianship in the Preservation of Caribbean Intellectual Traditions

Christina Bleyer
Trinity College

 

Recovering Musical Memory in São Paulo

Eric Galm
Trinity College

7:00pm
-
8:00pm
SIG for Archiving
Location: M-106/107
Date: Friday, 24/Oct/2025
8:30am
-
10:30am
05E: Rethinking the Field in African Music Studies
Location: M-106/107
Chair: Althea SullyCole, Schulich School of Music, McGill University
 

Rethinking the Field in African Music Studies

Chair(s): Shirley Chikukwa (Columbia University)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Gifts From Nature: Akan Episteme, Palmwine Music and Galamsey in the Anthropocene

Josh Brew
University of Pittsburgh

 

The Business of Culture: Contemporary Field Sites and African Popular Music

Shirley Chikukwa
Columbia University

 

Colonial Postcard Archives and Reimagining Music Fieldwork in Eritrea

Dexter Story
UCLA

 

Fesfop and the Social Life of Material Cultural Heritage in Senegal

Althea SullyCole
Schulich School of Music, McGill University

10:45am
-
12:15pm
06E: Digital Sounds in Communities
Location: M-106/107
Presenter: Ashley Ann Greathouse, University of Cincinnati & Marshall University
Presenter: ZIXUAN WANG, UT Austin
 

Ready Player Two: Embodiment and Social Play in Multiplayer Virtual/Augmented Reality Rhythm/Dance Games

Ashley Ann Greathouse

University of South Carolina



Collective Musicking in the Digital Age: Participation, AI-Singing, and Virtual Community on Bilibili

ZIXUAN WANG

UT Austin,



Cyberspace, Threads, and AI Music: Music’s Role in Taiwan’s 2024 Blue Bird Movement

An-Ni Wei

Indiana University

12:30pm
-
1:30pm
SIG for Musics in and of Europe
Location: M-106/107
1:45pm
-
3:45pm
07E: An Insistent Call and Response: Exploring the work and legacy of Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon
Location: M-106/107
Chair: Dwandalyn Reece, Smithsonian, Natl Mus of African American Hist & Culture
 

An Insistent Call and Response: Exploring the work and legacy of Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon

Chair(s): Dwandalyn Reece (Smithsonian, Natl Mus of African American Hist & Culture,)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

N/A

Maya Cunningham1, Tammy Kernodle2, Krystal Klingenberg3, Maureen Mahon4, Stephen Stacks5, Portia Maultsby6
1University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2Miami University, 3Smithsonian, NMAH, 4New York University, 5North Carolina Central University, 6Indiana University

4:00pm
-
5:30pm
08E: Contemporary Black Music in Southern Europe
Location: M-106/107
Chair: Jacqueline Georgis
 

Contemporary Black Music in Southern Europe

Chair(s): Deonte Harris (UNC)

Discussant(s): Deonte Harris (UNC)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Príncipe Discos and the Sonic Politics of Afro Lisboa

Jacqueline Georgis
College of the Holy Cross

 

Transforming Spain’s Cultural Scene: Music collectives and the Rise of Afro-descendant Communities

Genevieve Allotey-Pappoe
Brown University

 

Nero a metà, in realtà: Black-Italian Musicians Sounding the Global South

Clifton Boyd
NYU

Date: Saturday, 25/Oct/2025
8:30am
-
10:30am
09E: Music and Publics in Emerging Democracies in Africa
Location: M-106/107
Chair: Charles Lwanga, University of Michigan
 

Panel Title: Music and Publics in Emerging Democracies in Africa

Chair(s): Charles Lwanga (University of Michigan,)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Japa Syndrome: The 'Postcolonial Normal', Popular Music, and the Precarities of Youth Social Movements in Fourth Republic Nigeria (1999-)

Joshua Kerobo
University of Michigan

 

Music and Bobi Wine’s ‘People Power’ Counterpublic in Uganda

Charles Lwanga
University of Michigan

 

Musical Publics and Counterpublics in Central Cameroon

Dueck Byron
The Open University

 

Sweating the Details: Policy Capture and Protest Music in the 2024 Senegalese Presidential Election

Brendan Kibbee
University of Maryland

10:45am
-
12:15pm
10E: Sounding Global Fascism: Inter-Axis Musical Exchange between Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany
Location: M-106/107
Chair: Ryan Christopher Gourley, University of California, Berkeley
 

Sounding Global Fascism: Inter-Axis Musical Exchange between Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany

Chair(s): Junko Oba (Hampshire College)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Broadcasting German-Japanese Relations, Richard Strauss’s 70th Birthday

Amanda Hsieh
Durham University

 

Harbin-Papa, Berlin-Mama? Inter-Axis Record Circulation and Russian Diaspora

Ryan Gourley
University of California, Berkeley

 

The Revolution will be Broadcasted: Reimagining Music in Imperial Japan through Inter-Axis Music Learning

Emily Lu
Florida State University

7:00pm
-
9:00pm
SSW & GSS Speed Mentoring
Location: M-106/107
Date: Sunday, 26/Oct/2025
8:30am
-
10:30am
11E: In the Classroom
Location: M-106/107
Presenter: Sumeet Anand
Presenter: Robin P. Harris, Dallas International University
Presenter: Rubens De La Corte
Presenter: Scott Spencer, University of Southern California
 

Hindustani classical music and evolving hybrid pedagogy: Experential recounting and implications for learning and practise

Sumeet Anand

Visiting Associate Professor Department of Ethnomusicology Herb Alpert School of Music UCLA



Integrating Analysis, Embodiment, and Ethnography: A Participatory Approach to Teaching Ethnoarts

Robin P. Harris

Dallas International University,



Reimagining Lutherie Education in Argentina and Brazil: Towards Inclusive, Collective, and Sustainable Frameworks

Rubens De La Corte

Graduate Center-CUNY



Digital Humanities in the World Music Classroom: Fostering Peer-Built Diversity and Inclusivity

Scott Spencer, Giulia Bratosin

University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music

10:45am
-
12:15pm
12E: Listening to Visual Cultures
Location: M-106/107
Presenter: Melanie Kaye Moseley, University of Pittsburgh
Presenter: Kevin Salfen, University of the Incarnate word
Presenter: Hao Yang, City University of New York, The Graduate Center
 

Statutory Rape and R&B: How a Documentary Influenced the Conviction of R. Kelly

Melanie Kaye Moseley

University of Pittsburgh



"Phoenix Fire": From Shinsaku Noh to Film

Kevin Salfen

University of the Incarnate Word