Conference Agenda
The Online Program of events for the SEM 2026 Annual Meeting appears below. This program is subject to change. The final program will be published in early November.
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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: 29th Aug 2026, 08:48:40pm EDT
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Daily Overview |
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07L: Haunted Acoustemologies: Witches, Ruins, and the Supernatural Location: State Room West | |
| Presentation 2 | |
Witches and Other Border-Crossers: Sonic Pathways of Solidarity Through Transcarpathia in the Works of Alina Pash University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Ukrainian witches take many forms. One commonality that rises from their diverse practices is their ability to reach across the boundary between worlds. Like Baba Yaga’s one leg of bone and one of flesh, the Ukrainian witch straddles the boundaries between life and death, civilization and wilderness, the everyday and the supernatural, as well as the self and the other. Barbara Creed argues that such depictions of “monstrous” femininity can be wielded with the intent of challenging the patriarchal symbolic order and seeking alternative modes of being (2023). Others note that witchcraft serves as a last resort when one has no other recourse against oppression (Boudovskaia 2017; Kivelson 2013). This paper examines musical representations of witches in the works of Ukrainian singer and rapper Alina Pash during Russia’s war on Ukraine. My analysis demonstrates that, by using occult symbolism and folk belief to oppose Russia’s hegemonic claims, Pash’s music challenges colonial notions of ownership, belonging, and monolithic cultural and linguistic unity that have served as Vladimir Putin’s justification for the war. While Pash roots much of her work in Transcarpathian diversity, her sound is also internationally engaged, informed by collaborations with multiple international artists, genres, regional instruments, and languages. In this way, Pash’s witches contribute to a rich and diverse Ukrainian musical landscape whose lineages and solidarities can be traced both locally and globally. She displays the creative and political potential of crossing and dissolving sonic boundaries of identity and belonging that patriarchal aggressors seek to manipulate in their favor. | |
