This one-day conference seeks to explore the ways in which music, technology and digital cultures form part of everyday musical practices for performers, composers and listeners in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and throughout MENA diasporic networks.

The event will bring together scholars, performers, filmmakers and events organisers who share an interest in both historical and contemporary musical cultures in the MENA region. Our definition of technology is intentionally broad, and encompasses compositional, instrumental, archival and communicative digital technologies (the Internet, social media, etc.). The conference aims to open up dialogue about the relationships between music, technologies and digital cultures in the contemporary MENA region.

Speakers: Dr Amina Boubia (SciencesPo Paris’ Centre for International Studies), Nathan Comer (Masåfåt Festival, London and Cairo), Sophia Frankford (University of Oxford), Amin Hashemi (SOAS, University of London), Sylvaine Leblond Martin (University of Rennes 2), Jane Lewisohn (SOAS, University of London), Jiryis Murkus Ballan, Aghsan Khalilih and Abigail Wood (University of Haifa), Cristina Moreno Almeida (King’s College London), Omar Souhaili aka Dizzy DROS, George Murer (City University of New York)