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.
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: 29th Aug 2026, 08:48:27pm EDT
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Daily Overview |
| Session | |
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08G: Sounding Relations: Music, Gender, and More-than-Human Worlds in West Africa Location: Redbud | |
| Presentation 3 | |
“A Human Should Act Like a Human”: Interspecies Divine Community in Senegal University of Iowa A recent more-than-human, multinaturalist turn in ethnomusicology attends to living, sounding beings, often positioning them non-hierarchically. Likewise, as Senegalese Islamic proverbs and stories consistently demonstrate, humans are part of a Divine community which includes animals, trees, and the ocean, among other creatures. But humans are considered unique in their place within Divine community because of their freedom of choice to disobey God, a choice which—Leopold Sedar Senghor said—makes the act of being human both “a question and a worry.” For humans imbued with this singular responsibility, listening and hearing are essential. Individuals must attend to the sounds of advice, social norms, and non-humans in the surrounding world, in order to fashion an ethical humanity where people live in community with each other, non-humans, and God. This paper explores the sonic constitution of Divine community in Senegal through proverbs, stories, and ethnographic work centered around the Islamic holiday of Tabaski (Eid al-Adha) in the urban capital of Dakar. In the days leading up to Tabaski, the city fills with the sounds of preparation, generosity, and sheep, followed by the sounds of slaughter and preservation, offering a temporal window in which to hear Divine community. This paper prods at the crafting of humanity within this community—as modern, sociable, and ethical—through the sonic. | |
