Nearly 50 UCLA students, faculty and alumni participated in the 63rd annual Society for Ethnomusicology Conference, recently held in Albuquerque. The meeting, the largest of its kind, gathered together 1,000 international ethnomusicologists, musicologists, anthropologists and scholars of sound studies, and featured a series of live music performances, offering scholars a forum to engage in up-to-date conversations in an effort to advance the field.
The conference included presentations and panels dedicated to the study of all types of music from diverse humanistic and social scientific perspectives; scholars and performers collaborated to showcase new material. UCLA Chair of Ethnomusicology, Mark Kligman was a panelist in the event “Musical Tradition and Modernity in Iranian National Identity,” and UCLA Ethnomusicology Lecturer, Mohsen Mohammadi presented “Traditional Modernities: Modern Discourses on Traditional Iranian Modal System.”
Other topics presented at the conference ranged from indigenous music to global pop and beyond. A new documentary film by Steven Feld concerned ecology and the well-being of people at his field site in Papua New Guinea.
To learn more about the 2018 SEM Conference and to discover what the school of music’s current students and faculty presented, see the program link, here.
Papers and Panels of Interest at SEM Conference
Albuquerque 2018:
Thursday 11/15
Jewish Music in the North American Diaspora
Chair: Mark Slobin, Wesleyan University
This is what Migration Sounds Like: Songs of Ottoman Jewish Cultural Relationships, 1920- 1989 (116832), Simone Salmon, University of California, Los Angeles
Is the Repertoire of Sammy Musiker the Real Jewish Jazz?: Expressions of Jewish American Identity in the mid-20th century (116773), Clara Byom, Independent Scholar, Ettrick, WI
Challah and Roses: Jewish Music in Toronto’s Kensington Market (116749), Jardena Gertler- Jaffe, University of Toronto
Friday 11/16
Jewish Liturgical and Religious Song
Chair: Liliana Carrizo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
An Opulent Silence: Cantors and Jewish Liturgical Music in Twentieth Century Argentina (116734), Lillian Wohl, University of California, Los Angeles
Opportunity and Conflict: The Gentrification of Khazunes (116519), Jeremiah Lockwood, Stanford University
Hasidic Songs, Sephardi Voices: Constructing Modern Religious Selves in Istanbul’s Jewish Community (116567), Joseph Alpar, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Saturday 11/17
Musical Tradition and Modernity in Iranian National Identity (116825)
Chair: Mark Kligman, University of California, Los Angeles
Traditional Modernities: Modern Discourses on Traditional Iranian Modal System, Mohsen Mohammadi, University of California, Los Angeles
The Dispute over Microtones: Aesthetics and Identity in Iranian Classical Music, Solmaz Shakerifard, University of Washington
A Musical Repatriation: Tracing the Resurgence of the Barbat in Iran, Behzad Namazi, Ohio University
Discussant: Mark Kligman, University of California, Los Angeles
Upcoming Conference:
Society for Ethnomusicology, Southern California and Hawaii Chapter (SEMSCHC)
60th Annual Meeting
March 2-3, 2019
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106