CALL FOR PAPERS
Please circulate to interested
parties
SEA SONGS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN:
COLLECTION, COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS
an international conference to be held
in the historic port town of Mahdia, Tunisia,
on Friday 11 to Sunday 13 April 2025
Photo: Tonnara in Favignana, from the film by Marcello Tramondini [FIAF],
2023
Dear Mediterranean Music Colleagues,
This is a letter to researchers, singers and musicians,
inviting proposals of papers and performances for an international
musicological conference about the wide-ranging and fascinating history of the
sea songs of the Mediterranean.
The conference will be held in the historic port
town of Mahdia in Tunisia on the second weekend of April 2025.
It will be an in-person conference, with live
streaming for people who cannot attend in person..
The conference is organised as a joint effort with
the Maison de la Culture of Mahdia and also with the local fisheries
association Dar al-Hout. The conference coordinator is ethnomusicologist
Ed Emery [Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London (SOAS)].
The proceedings will include a special panel of the
Mediterranean Music Studies
Group of the International Council
for Traditions of Music and Dance [MMS / ICTMD].
We believe that our conference will make an
important contribution to the study of musical and cultural circulations in the
Mediterranean through the centuries, and that it will also add useful
perspectives for framing ongoing problematisations of the idea of �the
Mediterranean�.
We began by asking: �Are there sea shanties in the
The conference will extend from Friday to Sunday.
In addition to two days of formal presentations of academic papers, there will
also be concerts and music sessions involving local musicians and also
musicians representing the sea-song cultures of the various countries of the
Mediterranean.
The papers from the conference will be published in
book form, and will also be posted online on the conference website.
The official languages of the conference will be
English, French and Arabic. Where possible, pre-conference translations will be
prepared and circulated.
The conference is not funded. Therefore
participants will be requested to make their own travel arrangements. However
we are discussing with the Mahdia local authorities the possible provision of
local transport, subsidised accommodation and a conference dinner for speakers.
Registration for attending the conference is free, and will be
open to all who wish to attend.
If you wish to propose a paper, or offer
a musical performance, or simply wish to attend the conference,
please write to the conference organiser at the following address:
E-mail: [email protected]
PROSPECTUS OF THE CONFERENCE:
Papers are invited that cover the countries of the
Mediterranean basin.
We do not exclude the maritime peripheries of the
Atlantic and the Red Sea.
We cover all periods of history, from Antiquity to
the present day.
The following is a non-exclusive list of possible
areas of discussion:
* Songs associated with fishing, marine harvesting, sponge-gathering, etc;
* Songs of migration and emigration;
* Songs of parting, returns, loss, deaths, and the
dangers of the sea;
* Songs of women associated with the sea;
* Songs arising from wars and battles;
* Songs associated with pilgrimage - including
Christians, Muslims and Jews;
* Work songs, shanties, and everyday songs of
mariners, both aboard ship and on the shore;
* Songs associated with religious cults of the sea;
* Songs having a relation to dance.
SUBMISSIONS:
If you wish to propose a paper, please send your
ABSTRACT [max. 200 words] and a CV [max 100 words] to the organiser at the
e-mail address above.
The deadline for submissions is 15 July 2024.
However early submission is encouraged.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent out on 15
August 2024.
We look forward to hearing from you
Thank you for your attention.
In case it is of interest, here is a nicely framed
video about the town of
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Last updated: 7 May 2024