SUPPORTED BY: KCL Faculty of Arts and Humanities, UNC Institute for Arts and Humanities
ORGANISING COMMITTEE: KING’S COLLEGE LONDON Yajie Ye, Marco Pace, Javier Rivas Rodriguez, Sarah Angleitner, Abbas Alsadeq THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL Matteo Charles Sammartano, Danny Paul Allen
CHAIRS: Dr Rim Irscheid, Dr Marco Ladd, Marco Pace, Samuel Buttler, Merel Dubois-Van Slageren, Wajiha Naqvi (workshop)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Professor Katherine Butler Scho eld, Professor Martin Stokes, Dr Andy Fry, Dr Flora Willson
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Schedule In Brief: Wednesday, 28th May 2025, St. David’s Thursday, 29th May 2025, St. David’s Room Room 1000: Registration
1000: Registration
1030: Opening Remarks
1030: Panel 3 – Structural Aesthetics and Musical Mechanisms
1045: Panel 1 – Sonic Identities in Arab Contexts
1130: Panel 4 – Improvisation and Compositional Dialogue
1215: Lunch
1230: Lunch
1330: Panel 2 – Gendered Listening
1400: Panel 5: Politics and Mediated Publics
1500: Break
1530: Break
1515: Qawwali Performance Workshop
1545: Postdoc-Led Roundtable
1615: Wine Reception
1645: Closing Remarks
1900: Conference Dinner
1700: Wine Reception
Presenters: KCL
UNC
Abbas Alsadeq A qah Bahar Baris Demirezer Helena Mcburney Mathew Hick Marco Pace Merel Dubois-Van Slageren Samuel Buttler
Joshua Harton Kira Gaillard Maureen Rafter Maya Letherer Mick Anderson
Activities: Qawwali Performance Workshop Postdoc-Led Roundtable Mentorship Session
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Wednesday, 28th May 2025, St. David’s Room
10:00 – 10:30 | Registration External visitors will need to sign in at the Strand Building reception. 10:30 – 10:45 | Opening Remarks — Professor Katherine Butler Scho eld 10:45 – 12:15 | Panel 1: Sonic Identities in Arab Contexts Chair: Marco Pace •·
Merel Dubois-Van Slageren (KCL): Muwashshahat in a Migrating World: Thoughts on the valuation of Arabic musical heritage today
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Kira Gaillard (UNC): In My Defense and Struggle for the Homeland: “Nashīd al-Quds” in the Twentieth-Century Pan-Arab Imaginary
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Abbas Alsadeq (KCL): Melotextualization as a Ritual Sonic System: Repetition, Meaning, and Sacred Affect in Ḥusaynī Performance
12:15 – 13:30 | Lunch Vegan buffet will be provided in Room SWB 20, South West Block. Informal mentorship sessions will take place during this time. 13:30 – 15:00 | Panel 2: Gendered Listening Chair: Merel Dubois-Van Slageren •·
Mathew Hick (KCL): Love Notes from the Field: Sonorising Queer Digital Intimacy
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Maureen Rafter (UNC): “This is why we can’t have nice things:” White Feminism and the Cultural Value of Taylor Swift Mick Anderson (UNC): “Easy to Be Hard”: Black Respectability Politics and Finding Catharsis for Hair’s Baby Mama 4
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15:00 – 15:15 | Break Tea and coffee will be provided in Room SWB 20, South West Block 15:15 – 16:15 | Qawwali Performance Workshop Chair: Wajiha Naqvi Led by Najmuddin-Saifuddin Qawwal brothers from Karachi, Pakistan 16:15 | Wine Reception Wine and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided in Room SWB 20, South West Block 19:00 | Conference Dinner Self-funded informal dinner at Franco Manca (Aldwych). Note: Attendees will pay for their own meals
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Thursday, 29th May 2025, St. David’s Room
10:00 – 10:30 | Registration External visitors will need to sign in at the Strand Building reception. 10:30 – 11:30 | Panel 3: Structural Aesthetics and Musical Mechanisms Chair: Samuel Buttler •·
Baris Demirezer (KCL): The Fermata: A Contextual and Musical Analysis Through Johann Christian Bach’s Symphonies Concertantes
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Helena McBurney (KCL): What do Mozart and a mechanical duck have in common?
11:30 – 12:30 | Panel 4: Improvisation and Compositional Dialogue Chair: Dr Rim Irscheid •·
Marco Pace (KCL): Realising Eighteenth-Century Partimenti on Monodic Instruments
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Samuel Buttler (KCL): Two Eagles and Empty Skies: Structural Voice Leading as an Accompanying Device
12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch Vegan buffet will be provided in Room SWB 20, South West Block. Informal mentorship sessions will take place during this time. 14:00 – 15:30 | Panel 5: Politics and Mediated Publics Chair: Dr Marco Ladd •·
A qah Bahar (KCL): Sounding the Nation: Music, Power and the Construction of Political Subjectivity in Malaysia
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Joshua Harton (UNC): Music Interpretation as Literary Device in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss
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Maya Leatherer (UNC): Print Dissemination Networks and Social Lives of Broadside Ballads in Late 16th-Century London
15:30 – 15:45 | Break Tea and coffee will be provided in Room SWB 20, South West Block 15:45 – 16:45 | Postdoc-Led Roundtable Led by Dr Rim Irscheid and Dr Marco Ladd 16:45 | Closing Remarks and Wine Reception Wine and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided in Room SWB 20, South West Block
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Qawwali Performance Workshop
DATE & TIME: Wednesday, 28 May 2025, 3.15–4:15 PM
LOCATION: St. David’s Room, Strand Campus, King’s College London
Featuring: Najmuddin-Saifuddin Qawwal Brothers (Karachi, Pakistan) Renowned hereditary Qawwals from the Qawwal Bacche, Delhi Gharana
About the Workshop: Introductory session on the basics of Qawwali music, including performance techniques.
Hosted by: King’s College London’s Department of Music
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In collaboration with the 14th KCL-UNC Graduate Student Music Conference
Postdoc-Led Roundtable This session invites early career researchers, Dr Rim Irscheid and Dr Marco Ladd, to share their experiences of transitioning from PhD to postdoctoral life. Speakers will re ect on how their research has developed over time, the challenges and surprises of post-PhD work, and offer practical advice for current PhD students.
Mentorship Session This informal session is designed to foster conversation and connection between postgraduate research students and faculty members across institutions. Held during the lunch break, it provides space for one-on-one or small group discussions on research interests and academic development. Professor Martin Stokes and Dr Andy Fry will also be joining the session, offering students the opportunity to engage directly with KCL faculty working in related areas. The session encourages potential mentoring relationships between UNC students and King’s faculty, making the most of this unique opportunity for in-person exchange.
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