[Please
circulate to interested parties]
CALL FOR PAPERS
You are invited to participate in an international
conference
SEA SONGS OF THE
COLLECTION, COMPARISON AND
ANALYSIS
Maison de la Culture, Mahdia, Tunisia
Friday 11 to Sunday 13 April 2025
_____________
Dear
Mediterranean Music Colleagues,
This is a letter to researchers, singers and musicians, inviting
proposals of papers and performances for an international musicological
conference entitled
SEA SONGS OF THE
COLLECTION, COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS .
The conference will be held in the historic port town of
The conference is organised by Ed Emery [Research Associate at the
The proceedings will include a panel of the Mediterranean Music Studies Group of the 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�'.
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We began by asking: 'Are there sea shanties in the
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The conference will extend from Friday to Monday. It will include
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
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.
This will be an 'in-person' conference.
Provision will also be made for colleagues who are unable to travel to
The conference is not funded. Therefore participants will be
requested to make their own travel arrangements. However we are expecting that
the conference committee will able to assist with provision of local transport,
accommodation and a conference dinner for speakers.
Registration for attending the conference is free,
and is open to all who wish to attend.
___________
If you wish to propose a paper, or 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
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 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
Harbaoui
Yassin [Director, Maison de la Culture, Mahdia]
Habib
Nacib [Programme administrator, Maison de la
Culture, Mahdia]
Ed Emery [SOAS,
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OUTLINE PROGRAMME OF THE CONFERENCE
THURSDAY 10 April: [for early arrivers]
AFTERNOON:
Optional session at the hammam steam bath in the
EVENING:
Informal music session with local musicians, at the Fishermen's Cafe inside the
port area.
FRIDAY 11 April
AFTERNOON:
Welcome session. And presentation of introductory papers.
EVENING:
Dance party with local musicians and young people of the town
SATURDAY 12 April
ALL
DAY: Presentations of formal papers
EVENING:
Formal concert in the main hall of the Maison de la
Culture
SUNDAY 13 April
ALL
DAY: Presentations of formal papers
EVENING:
Informal music session, including Rebetiko Band, at
the open-air cafe in Place du Caire.
MONDAY 14 April
Breakfast farewells. Proposals for our next conference
in 2027. And an option of visits to local sites of
archaeological and cultural interest.
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Last
updated 3.iii.2024