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.

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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, 07:03:05pm EDT

 
 
Session Overview
Session
10D: Refugees, Forced-Migration, and Ethnomusicology: What Can We Do?
Time:
Saturday, 25/Oct/2025:
10:45am - 12:15pm

Session Chair: Lisa Gilman
Location: M-104/105

Marquis Level 190

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Presentations

Refugees, Forced-Migration, and Ethnomusicology: What Can We Do?

Chair(s): Lisa Gilman (George Mason University)

War, persecution, climate crises, and other factors have forced over 120 million people worldwide to flee their homes. As people move from one place to the other, settle temporarily or permanently in new locations, and (for some) return to their original homes, music is an inextricable part of their lives. The roundtable participants are engaged with music and displacement with diverse populations in the world (Rohingya, Ethiopians, Palestinians, Syrians, Congolese, Uyghurs, Burundians, Cambodians, and more) who currently reside in different countries (Bangladesh, United States, Greece, Türkiye, France, Malawi). The roundtable participants will center their comments around the following questions: 1) How do forcibly displaced people use the arts to establish a sense of place, build community, forge connections, create financial stability, address trauma, and counter xenophobia, racism, and other forms of prejudice? 2) What have been the major contributions of existing scholarship on music, conflict, and displacement, and what is missing? 3) How can a focus on music bring visibility to the positive contributions that displaced people make to their host countries (and the world)? 4) What role (if any) do ethnomusicologists have in advocacy or activism for displaced people?

 

Presentations in the Session

 

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Kay Kaufman Shelemay
Harvard University

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Jennifer Sherrill
University of California Davis

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David A. McDonald
Indiana University

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Bradley DeMatteo
University of Toronto

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Tomal Hossain
University of Chicago

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