RILM will participate in the 47th World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), which will take place at the University of Ghana in Legon, Ghana, 13–19 July 2023.

On Monday, 17 July, at 11:00am GMT/7:00am EDT, Executive Director Tina Frühauf and Executive Editor Zdravko Blažeković chair the RILM-sponsored plenary session “(Re)writing the (Ethno)musicological Canon: Africa, Music Historiography, and Their Others”. Panelists are Daniel Kodzo Avorgbedor, Bridget Chinouriri, Imani Sanga, Patricia Opondo, and Nico Staiti.

Additionally, on Tuesday, 18 July, at 8:30am GMT/4:30am EDT, Zdravko will present his paper “Carsten Niebuhr’s Reisebeschreibung Nach Arabien Und Andern Umliegenden Ländern: European Views of the Arabic Music” on the panel Representing Ourselves and Others, which he will also chair. 

On Thursday, 13 July, at 5:00pm GMT/1:00pm EDT, Associate Editor Gene Lai will remotely present his paper “Taking cues from Taoist and Hindu Folk Deities: The Development of Singaporean and Malaysian Uṟumi Mēḷam” during the panel entitled Shifting Aesthetics and Reimagining Meanings of Spirit Encounters: Sound, Movement, and Religious Hybridity in Southeast Asia. The following Saturday, 15 July, at 11:00am GMT/7:00am EDT, Assistant Editor Farah Zahra will present her paper “Displaced Archives: A [Hi]story of the Cassettes’ Collections of the Iraqi Maqam”. And on Wednesday, 19 July, at 2:30pm GMT/10:30am EDT, Editor Mu Qian will share his research on “Louder Dhikr: Mediation and Transmission of Uyghur Sufi Sounds” during the panel Negotiating the Sacred in Music and Dance.

Please feel free to find Tina, Zdravko, or Mu Qian and ask questions, provide feedback, or just say hello. You can find more details on this international gathering in the conference program and on the conference website.