Middle East and Central Asia Music Forum

Location: Room AG09, College Building.

In conjunction with the Institute of Musical Research.

Abstracts and schedule (pdf)

SCHEDULE

9.15am Registration 

Morning Sessions: Focus on Iran

Session 1, 9.30 – 10.40am

Chair: Rachel Harris, SOAS

Roya Arab, City University of London

‘Fluidity and Transformation Across Time, Space, People and Mediums. Who gets Credited? Ma Va To, an Iranian Music Case Study’

Jasmin Irscheid, University of Oxford

‘Rave Iran: Cosmopolitan Counterculture in the Islamic State’

10.40am Tea/Coffee

Session 2, 11.15am-12.45pm

Chair: TBC

Erum Naqvi, Pratt Institute, New York

‘Experiments in Contemporary Iranian Musical Theatre’

Ignacio Agrimbau, SOAS

‘The Aesthetic Narratives of the Iranian Santur: A case of Juggling Hegemonies and Counter-hegemonies’

Laudan Nooshin, City, University of London

‘The Phoenix of Persia: Introducing Primary School Children to Iranian Music’

Lunch (not provided) 12.45-2pm

New for 2019! Justyna Nikoopour will lead a lunchtime musical origami workshop for anyone who would like to join: great for relaxation and enhancing the memory!

1-2pm Room AG08

Session 3, 2pm-3.45pm

Chair: Razia Sultanova, University of Cambridge

Darci Sprengel, University of Oxford

‘Theorizing “Quiet”: Atmospheres of Sleep and Political Refusal in Post-Revolution Egypt’

Sophia Frankford, University of Oxford

‘Egyptian Sha’bi Music and Working Class Masculinities’

Peter McMurray, University of Cambridge

'Listening with the Dead in Muslim Berlin (and Beyond)'

3.45pm Tea/Coffee

Session 4, 4.15-6pm

Chair: Gabrielle Messeder, City, University of London

Graihagh Cordwell, University of Oxford

‘Musical Humanitarianism? Ethics and Methods of Doing Fieldwork in Zaatari Refugee Camp, Jordan’

Tala Jarjour, King’s College London

‘Ethnography and Writing: About the Pain of Others’

Film Screening: I am No Bird (Dir: Andrew Cagle, 2018) about the Syrian electronic musician Samer Saem El Dahr, followed by Q&A with Clara Wentz (SOAS)

Short break

6-6.45pm: Drinks reception to mark the publication of Sense and Sadness: Syriac Chant in Aleppo by Tala Jarjour (2018, Oxford University Press).

The forum will be followed by an evening concert, starting at 7pm, part of the City Summer Sounds Festival. The concert is a showcase of City PhD student composers and will include work by British-Iranian composer Soosan Lolavar.

The Middle East and Central Asia Music Forum has been running since 2007 and is open to researchers, students and anyone interested in the music and culture of the region. In the spirit of fostering dialogue and interdisciplinarity, we hope that the issues discussed at the forum will be of interest to a broad audience, including musicologists, ethnomusicologists and other researchers in the arts, humanities and social sciences. In addition, we welcome those working on other aspects of Middle Eastern and Central Asian culture broadly speaking (dance, visual arts, media, film, literature, etc.)

The Forum is convened by Professor Laudan Nooshin, City, University of London (l.nooshin@city.ac.uk) and Dr Rachel Harris, SOAS, University of London (rh@soas.ac.uk).