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, 07:05:48pm EDT

 
 
Session Overview
Location: M-109
Marquis Level 55
Date: Thursday, 23/Oct/2025
8:00am
-
10:00am
01F: Feeling the Song and Making Sense of the Non-Verbal In Three Vocal Traditions of Central Eurasia
Location: M-109
Chair: Katherine Freeze Wolf
 

Feeling the Song and Making Sense of the Non-Verbal In Three Vocal Traditions of Central Eurasia

Chair(s): Richard K. Wolf (Harvard University)

Discussant(s): Richard K. Wolf (Harvard University)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Pain Beyond Words: Weeping Voice, Linguistic Unintelligibility, and Embodied Suffering in Shia Mourning Rituals in Tehran

Hamidreza Salehyar
University of Toronto

 

Plaintive Tunes for Tender Words: Plucked Lutes as Voice Surrogates in Folksong Performance, Tajik Badakhshan

Katherine Freeze Wolf
Boston, MA

 

Twisting the Vowels: Preverbal Multispecies Communication in the Practice of Mongolian Urtyn duu

Sunmin Yoon
University of Delaware

10:45am
-
12:15pm
02F: Revising Boundaries of Language, Song, and Ritual in the Caucasus and Eastern Anatolia
Location: M-109
Chair: Brian Fairley, University of Pittsburgh
 

Revising Boundaries of Language, Song, and Ritual in the Caucasus and Eastern Anatolia

Chair(s): Brian Fairley (University of Pittsburgh,)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Language and Song in the Caucasian Borderlands: Nikolai Marr and the Sound of Archaeology

Brian Fairley
University of Pittsburgh

 

Meqamî Kurdî and the Shaping of Musical Identity in Contemporary Kurdistan

Jon Bullock
University of Notre Dame

 

Between Code-Switching and Kindred Resonances in the Multilingual Polymusicality of a Lived Kurdish Geography

George Murer
Hunter College, City University of New York

12:30pm
-
1:30pm
SIG for Japanese Performing Arts
Location: M-109
1:45pm
-
3:45pm
03F: The Magnetic Politics of Cassette Archives
Location: M-109
Chair: David Novak
 

The Magnetic Politics of Cassette Archives

Chair(s): Farzaneh Hemmasi (U of Toronto)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Unhearing Happy Birthday: A Cassette Deck in the Polish American Kitchen

Andrea Bohlman
UNC Chapel Hill

 

Anarchive in the UK: Tape Collections as Diasporic Recollections

David Novak
UCSB

 

Listening in Plain Sight: Kurdish Cassettes and The Absence of Visual History

Fidel Glitch
UC Berkeley

 

Punjabi Tape Nostalgia in Truck-Borne Obscenity, Village Anomie, and Ethnomusicological History

Davindar Singh
Harvard

4:00pm
-
5:30pm
04F: Gendered Voices and Performative Visions of Transnational North India
Location: M-109
Chair: Christian Morgan James, Indiana University Bloomington
 

Gendered Voices and Performative Visions of Transnational North India

Chair(s): Christian Morgan James (Indiana University Bloomington,)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Camels, Courts, and Contradictions: Reimagining Gender Performativity in Hindustani Tappa

Ali Hassan
University of Pittsburgh

 

In the Realm of Ecstasy: Sufi Diplomacy at the “Jahan-e-Khusrau” Music Festival

John Caldwell
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

 

One Billion Rising on Stage: The Inclusive Festival as Resource for Feminist Mobilization in Himachal Pradesh

Christian Morgan James
Indiana University Bloomington

Date: Friday, 24/Oct/2025
8:30am
-
10:30am
05F: Cosmopolitan Creativity in the Southern Balkans: Three Contemporary Responses to Folk Music Institutions
Location: M-109
Chair: Donna A Buchanan, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
 

Cosmopolitan Creativity in the Southern Balkans: Three Contemporary Responses to Folk Music Institutions

Chair(s): Donna A Buchanan (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,)

Discussant(s): Donna A Buchanan (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Parakalamos Blues vs. Pogonisio Jazz: Musical Creativity and Positionality Among Two Epirote Musicians

Gabriel Zuckerberg
Brown University

 

Mediterraneanist and Balkanist Cosmopolitan Visions at Greek Summer Music Seminars: Two Case Studies in Pedagogy and Performance

Dimitris Gkoulimaris
University of Texas at Austin

 

“A Crisis of Ideas”: Institutional Decay, Creative Stasis, and Musical Identity in Contemporary Bulgarian Folk Music

Nathan Bernacki
University of British Columbia

10:45am
-
12:15pm
06F: Border(lands)
Location: M-109
Presenter: Gavin Douglas, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
Presenter: Mingyeong Son, Asian Music Research Institute of Seoul National University
Presenter: Jesse Aaron Freedman, University of Rochester - Eastman School of Music
 

On the Borders of ‘Music’: A Freshman Music Ontology

Gavin Douglas

University of North Carolina at Greensboro,



From Intercultural to Intermusical Aesthetics: Borderless Flow in Contemporary Korean Music

Mingyeong Son

Asian Music Research Institute of Seoul National University,



Sounding Across and Against Borders at the East German Festival of Political Songs in the Global Cold War

Jesse Aaron Freedman

University of Rochester - Eastman School of Music

12:30pm
-
1:30pm
Anatolian Ecumene SIG
Location: M-109
1:45pm
-
3:45pm
07F: Hearing Heritage
Location: M-109
Presenter: Stephanie George, CUNY Graduate Center
Presenter: yang Yao
Presenter: Sunhong Kim
Presenter: Sara Hopkins, Western Carolina University
 

Listening for India:The Sonic Politics of Hindu Heritage in Indo-Caribbean ‘Madrasi Religion’

Stephanie George

CUNY Graduate Center



Reviving Xiansuo Beikao: Historicity, Temporality, and the Construction of Social Strata

yang Yao

The Chinese University of Hong Kong



Seoulizing Provincial Sound: Purification, Standardization, and Cultivation in the Aesthetic Practice of the State-driven Korean Folk Instrumental Ensemble

Sunhong Kim

University of Michigan



Demonstration Performance by Uweti Tsalagi Dininogisgi, the Cherokee Language Repertory Choir

Sara Hopkins

Western Carolina University

4:00pm
-
5:30pm
08F: South Asian Artistic Pedagogy in Transnational Perspective
Location: M-109
Chair: Varshini Narayanan, The University of Chicago
 

South Asian Artistic Pedagogy in Transnational Perspective

Chair(s): Sarah Morelli (University of Denver)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Guru-Sisya Parampara in the U.S. Diaspora

Varshini Narayanan
University of Chicago

 

Re-Rooting the Art, Re-Routing the Body: Unlearning to Learn the T. Balasaraswati Dance Tradition in the United States

Bianca Iannitti
Wesleyan University

 

Pathways to Tamil Diaspora Worship through Ragam Education in the U.S.

Rachel Schuck
University of North Texas

Date: Saturday, 25/Oct/2025
8:30am
-
10:30am
09F: Jazz Stories
Location: M-109
Chair: Maurice Restrepo, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
 

Jazz Stories

Chair(s): Maurice Restrepo (Graduate Center, City University of New York), Tracy McMullen (Bowdoin College)

 

Presentations in the Session

 

Jazz as Storytelling: Musical and Linguistic Metaphoricity in Jazz

Juwon Adenuga
University of Pittsburgh

 

Looking Back, Moving Forward: Archie Alleyne and Black Placemaking in Toronto

Keisha Bell-Kovacs
York University

 

Jam Sessions, Vibing, and Hegemonic Masculinity in the New York City Jazz Scene

Maurice Restrepo
Graduate Center, City University of New York

 

The Women Who Started Jazz: Gonzelle White, Count Basie, and the Variety Stage

Tracy McMullen
Bowdoin College

10:45am
-
12:15pm
10F: Generative Collaborations
Location: M-109
Presenter: Jennifer Lynne LaRue
Presenter: Conny Zhao
Presenter: Chao Tian, N/A
 

Negotiating Geo-Cultural Identity Through Contemporary Urtyn Duu Across Mongolia and China: A Tale of Two Singers

Conny Zhao

NYC, NY



Negotiating Spirituality in Intercultural Improvisation

Chao Tian

Boston University, Boston, MA

Date: Sunday, 26/Oct/2025
8:30am
-
10:30am
11F: Exchanges and Transactions
Location: M-109
Presenter: Jameson Foster
Presenter: Felix Morgenstern, University of Vienna
Presenter: Upatyaka Dutta, University of Toronto
Presenter: Holly Riley, Middle Tennessee State University
 

Down in the River to Pray: Animist Exchange in Nordic Fiddling

Jameson Foster

University of Colorado Boulder



Intercultural Transactions: Irish Traditional Music, Nationalism, and Nostalgia in Germany

Felix Morgenstern

University of Vienna



Acoustemologies of Labor: Sound, Music, and Survival in the Workplaces of Adivasi Tea Tribes on Assam's Tea Plantations

Upatyaka Dutta

University of Toronto



Broadway’s Bars and Stars: Celebrity Capitalism and Brand Identity in Country Music

Holly Riley

Middle Tennessee State University,

10:45am
-
12:15pm
12F: Voices in Context
Location: M-109
Presenter: Hansini Bhasker, Wesleyan University
Presenter: Cheuk Ling Yu, University of California San Diego
Presenter: Jiyoon Auo, University of Pittsburgh
 

Class(ical) Voice: Evolution and Association of Operatic Vibrato in American Pop Culture

Hansini Bhasker

Wesleyan University



Male Voices for Female Fans: A Paradox of Women’s Liberation in Contemporary Japanese Anime Franchises

Cheuk Ling Yu

University of California San Diego



Listening for Vocal Agency: T’ŭrot’ŭ, Enka, and Yi Nanyŏng’s Negotiation of Colonial Voice

Jiyoon Auo

University of Pittsburgh,