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Regards

CALL FOR PAPERS – Regards Journal, Issue 37

Film Festivals and Middle Eastern Cinemas

Issue Editor: Blake Atwood (ba71@aub.edu.lb)

For the better part of a century, international film festivals have been essential to the global circulation of Middle Eastern cinema. Entanglements between festivals and cinema from the region date back to at least 1946, when the Egyptian film Dunia (dir. Mohammad Karim, 1946) screened at the first full edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Since then, films from the Arab world, Iran, and Turkey have been mainstays on the festival circuit, premiering and screening at the Big Five (Berlin, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, and Venice), as well as smaller festivals around the world. The Middle Eastern films that make it onto the global festival circuit benefit from visibility, recognition, and potentially lucrative international distribution deals, all of which allow for wider circulation, greater prestige, and deeper audience engagement. For filmmakers coming from small markets such as Lebanon, festivals are essential to overcoming limited financial resources (Mouawad, 2020); for filmmakers working within tightly regulated industries, like in Iran, festivals offer an opportunity to exhibit films that might not otherwise receive domestic screening permits (Farahmand, 2002); and for filmmakers working under occupation, like those of Palestine, festivals offer a unique chance for national recognition, which is not possible under normative geopolitical institutions (Cable, 2025).

Yet, with these opportunities come foreclosures, too. A rich body of critical scholarship (e.g., de Valck, 2007; Wong, 2011) has shown that international film festivals, because they operate at the nexus of commerce, cinephilia, and politics, constrain the circulation of global cinema as much as they enable it. From encouraging certain styles to rewarding select filmmakers to capitalizing on liberal multiculturalism, international film festivals ultimately determine what is allowed to circulate globally in the first place. As crucial nodes in a vast, profit-driven network of formal distribution, festivals function as important gatekeepers that allow the passage of only a small number of films, while denying that of many others. Scholars have been especially attentive to the uneven power dynamics between Global North festivals and Global South cinemas (e.g., Falicov, 2010; Kim, Iordanova, and Berry, 2015). Such power dynamics enact what some have described as a neocolonial relationship in which funding schemes and systems of recognition insist on a homogenized aesthetic at the service of Western festivals and their audiences (Schoonover and Galt, 2016). While this is an important critique, more recent work (e.g., Barker 2024) has also advocated looking beyond a neocolonial framework to understand the relationship between Global North festivals and Global South cinemas through the lens of collaboration, co-production, and opportunity.

This special issue of Regards extends these critical debates by thinking through various dimensions of the relationship between film festivals and Middle Eastern cinema. In doing so, it also seeks to consolidate the growing research on the topic. This call for papers comes at a time as the festival scene transforms tremendously in the region, especially with the proliferation of local festivals across the Arab world, Iran, and Turkey. Notably, the rise of large festivals such as the Red Sea International Film Festival complicate easy distinctions between Global North and the Global South, and also invite us as critical scholars to reflect on the role of festivals in national branding efforts, as well as in the regional flow of culture, capital, and prestige. Studying the significance of film festivals to Middle Eastern cinema means much more than tracking the movement of films through European and North American festivals; it also requires careful attention to the role of local festivals in circulating global cinema, building audiences, encouraging film cultures, and contributing to political debates. With this shifting landscape in mind, Regards invites article manuscripts on the following topics, or on any other topic related to the larger theme of "Film Festivals and Middle Eastern Cinemas":

  • Histories of specific film festivals in the region
  • Relationship between festivals and local film industries
  • Issues related to the labor and political economy (e.g., neoliberalism/globalization) of film festivals
  • The aesthetics and styles of Middle Eastern "festival" films
  • The role of festivals in building political solidarity and enacting activist politics
  • Festival audiences, reception, and cinephilia in the region
  • The place of Middle Eastern cinema in international festival programming, curation, and outreach
  • The role of festivals as producers, funders, and educators, and the impact on local filmmaking practices
  • The significance of film festivals in shaping the study of film history and theory in the region

Submission Guidelines

Authors wishing to submit a proposal (in French, English, or Arabic) are invited to do so before June 20, 2026, through either of the following channels:

Please provide the following:

  • An abstract of the article (approximately 500 words)
  • 5 to 10 keywords
  • A brief indicative bibliography
  • A short academic biographical note (approximately 100 words)

Abstracts will be reviewed by the editorial board, and authors will receive a response before June 30, 2026. The deadline for submitting the full article (approximately 7,000 words) is September 1, 2026.

Bibliography

  • Barker, T. (2024). Reshaping production practices: European film festivals, new Indonesian cinema, and the creative producer. New Review of Film and Television 22(1), 556-576.
  • Baroody, M. & Kozberg, K. (2021). The politics of collective programming and the virtual Arab film festival. Framework: The journal of cinema and media 62(2), 274-297.
  • Cable, U. (2025). Mainstreaming Palestine: Cinematic activism and solidarity politics in the United States. University of Minnesota Press.
  • de Valck, M. (2007). Film festivals: From European geopolitics to global cinephilia. Amsterdam University Press.
  • Falicov, T. (2010). Migrating from south to north: The role of film festivals in funding and shaping global south film and video. In G. Elmer, C.H. Davis, J. Marchessault, and J. McCullough (Eds.) Locating migrating media. (pp. 3-21). Lexington Books.
  • Farahmand, A. (2002). Perspectives on recent (international acclaim for) Iranian cinema. In R. Tapper (Ed.) New Iranian cinema: Politics, representation, and identity. (pp. 86-108). I.B. Tauris.
  • Kim, D., Iordanova, D. & Berry, C. (2015). The Busan international film festival in crisis or, what should a film festival be? Film Quarterly 69(1), 80-89.
  • Mouawad, W. (2020). Lebanese cinema and the French co-production system: The postcard strategy. In T. Ginsberg and C. Lippard (Eds.). Cinema of the Arab world: Contemporary directions in theory and practice. (pp. 71-86). Springer International Publishing.
  • Saglier, V. (2014). Unstable and sustainable: The film festival institution and the case of the Franco-Arab Film Festival in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Transnational Cinemas 5(1), 41-56.
  • Van de Peer, S. (2021). Arab documentary landscapes: Transnational flow of solidarity at festivals. In V. Shafik (Ed.) Documentary filmmaking in the Middle East and North Africa. (pp. 153-176). American University in Cairo Press.
  • Wong, C.H. (2011). Film festivals: Culture, people, and power on the global screen. Rutgers University Press.

Call for Papers – Regards Journal, Issue 36

Arab Theatres' Archives and Historiographies

This issue aims to question the historiography of theatres in the Arab worlds and to reread it in light of its relationship to the archives of the performing arts. It will focus on the reasons and circumstances that lead to the preservation of traces of the performing arts, as well as on the assumptions and methods underlying the writing of theatre history.

The history of Arab theatres is often associated with voids, silences, or even a lack of representation and recognition within the global theatrical landscape. In the preface to his work al-Masraḥ al-munawwaʿ, Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm (1956) lamented that contemporary theatrical creation "thus arises from nothing or almost nothing, from a few rare experiences [...], working beyond a vertiginous abyss that the efforts made over generations by predecessors have failed to bridge" (7).

Could this "abyss" in the history of Arab performing arts be due, as Roger Assaf (2024) suggests, to a "parallax" (7) and to inherent gaps in a historiography of theatre that has turned away from practices of Arab performing arts prior to the 19th century, thereby limiting the preservation of their archives? Could "the historiographic abyss" itself result from the precariousness and fragmentation of the archives, or even from the absence of traces of traditional Arab theatrical forms?

Orality, interactivity, absence of finalized texts, and performances based on canvases – are these intrinsic characteristics of traditional Arab theatrical practices mainly responsible for the absence of precise and complete documents?

Even when they do exist, Arabic dramatic texts often remain inaccessible. Researchers attribute this scarcity to the reluctance of Arab publishing houses to publish theatrical texts, especially in local dialects. The texts that have reached us are, moreover, dependent on the selection criteria adopted by each author or anthology editor.

In turn, the "living archives" – according to Pavis (1996), the transmission of know-how and "embodied" scores by the actors – are often dispersed, preventing the permanence of foundational experiences in Arab theatrical movements.

More generally, many researchers and artists have emphasized the impossibility for any theatrical creation to preserve "living" traces of the entire "theatrical session" (Biet, 2013) as well as of the complete performance processes (Schechner, 2020).

This compels us to question the very nature of the preserved document, "frozen," classified as a theatre archive, as well as the criteria for its conservation and the subjectivity of its interpretation.

Critical reflections on the archiving of performing arts and on theatre historiography consistently highlight the inevitably fragmented and partial aspect of these two practices. Georges Banu (2017) observed that "in theatre, correct conservation – as in life – is impossible, but precisely because one cannot achieve it, one must attempt it" (8).

For his part, Assaf (2024) argues that "the history of theatre in the strict sense of the term is impossible, since the main element of theatrical phenomenon – performance – is essentially ephemeral" (7). He thus undertakes in his work the writing of a "non-history" of theatre which challenges the presumed universality of a history reduced "to the European model that the 19th century generalized" (8). This model marginalized not only the performative practices of the Arab and Asian worlds but also those of the Middle Ages and the European Baroque.

Without displaying a specific program for theatrical archives, the Arab Theatre Institute (al-Hayʾa al-ʿarabiyya lil-masraḥ, 2025) includes among its objectives "the documentation of theatrical culture in the Arab world" and, since 2009, has been publishing facsimiles of historical documents, histories of the theatre, case studies, biographies, and historiographies of theatres in eighteen Arab countries.

Beyond their patrimonial function, the uses of performing arts archives may corroborate or revoke conventional histories of Arab theatres. In fact, the archives themselves are often threatened with disappearance, not only because of negligence or the claim of ephemerality on the part of artists, but also due to deliberate policies of erasure and suppression.

Thanks to the discovery of the archives left by François Abou Salem to his friend Amer Khalil – current director of the Palestinian National Theatre founded by Abou Salem – Najla Nakhlé-Cerruti (2025) retraces his career, underscoring his fundamental role in the emergence and establishment of the theatrical movement in Palestine.

In sum, this issue is concerned with studying the interrelation between archives and historiography of Arab theatres, in the light of aesthetic, sociological, and ideological contexts in which the performing arts, their archives, and their historiographies, have been produced and received.

Research Axes (non-exhaustive list)

Researchers, historians, and artists of Arab theatres are invited to reflect on, among other things, the following questions:

  • At what moments and for what purposes do we seek to archive a theatrical experience?
  • How do the historiographers of Arab theatres make use of the archives? To what extent have they had to exhume, process, or even "manufacture" these archives (Denizot, 2014)?
  • How do the archives reveal or explain the "oversights" of theatrical history?
  • How can the study of evolving audience tastes shed light on archival and historiographic choices?
  • What traces of the materiality of theatrical performances (costumes, sets, stage techniques, etc.) persist in the archives of Arab theatres?
  • What place do the archives of the performing arts give to theatrical spaces – buildings, urban sites, and other venues invested by Arab performing arts?
  • To what extent do the archives and historiography of Arab theatres reveal the significant impact of exchanges and circulations on the development of the theatrical movement?
  • To what extent is local and regional criticism of plays an integral part of the archives?
  • How does the intimate dimension possibly hidden in the personal archives of artists reflect their "dispositions" and habitus in the field of Arab theatres?
  • How do certain plays seek to "perform the archive" of the performing arts or to fill in the gaps in the archives and historiographies of Arab theatres?

Submission Guidelines

Authors wishing to submit an abstract (in French, English, or Arabic) are invited to send it to regards@usj.edu.lb before November 30, 2025.

Please provide:

  • An abstract of the article (approx. 500 words)
  • 5–10 keywords
  • A short, indicative bibliography
  • A mini biography (approx. 100 words)

The abstracts will be examined by the editorial committee, and authors will receive an answer before December 15, 2025. The submission deadline for the article (approx. 5,000 words) will be February 27, 2026.

Scientific Committee

  • Hamid Aidouni, PR (Université Abdelmalek Essaadi, Maroc)
  • Karl Akiki, MCF (Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Liban)
  • Riccardo Bocco, PR (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Genève, IHEID, Suisse)
  • Fabien Boully, MCF (Université Paris Nanterre, France)
  • André Habib, PR (Université de Montréal, Canada)
  • Dalia Mostafa, MCF (University of Manchester, UK)
  • José Moure, PR (Université Paris Panthéon Sorbonne – Paris 1, France)
  • Jacqueline Nacache, PR (Université de Paris, France)
  • Ghada Sayegh, MCF (IESAV, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Liban)
  • Kirsten Scheid, Associate PR (American University of Beirut, Liban)

Editor-in-chief: Joseph Korkmaz, PR (Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth)

Issue Editors: Marianne Noujaim (Professeure – Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, IESAV) – Ons Trabelsi (Maîtresse de conférences, Université de Lorraine – CERCLE)

Bibliography

  • Al-Saber, S. (2025). A Movement's Promise. The Making of Contemporary Palestinian Theatre. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  • Assaf, R. (2024). Le Théâtre dans l'Histoire, t. 1. Les Théâtres antiques. Montpellier: Deuxième époque.
  • Badawī, M. M. (1998). Early Arabic Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Banu, G. (2017). Préface. De la nécessité des défis. In S. Lucet & S. Proust (dir.), Mémoires, traces et archives en création dans les arts de la scène (pp. 7-12). Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
  • Barbéris, I. (dir.). (2015). L'Archive dans les arts vivants. Performance, danse, théâtre. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
  • Ben Halima, H. (1974). Un Demi-siècle de théâtre arabe en Tunisie (1907-1957). Tunis: Publications de l'Université de Tunis.
  • Biet, C. (2013). Séance, performance, assemblée et représentation. Littératures classiques, 82(3), 79–97.
  • Boudier, M., & Mazeau, G. (2023). Performer l'archive. Nanterre: Presses Universitaires de Paris Nanterre.
  • Cheniki, A. (2002). Le Théâtre en Algérie. Histoire et enjeux. Aix-en-Provence: Édisud.
  • Denizot, M. (2014). L'engouement pour les archives du spectacle vivant. Écrire l'histoire, 13–14, 88–101.
  • Nakhlé-Cerruti, N. (2025). Le Théâtre palestinien et François Abou Salem. Arles: Actes Sud.
  • Noujaim, M. (2025). De la paternité d'un enfant terrible. In L. Denooz & N. Abi-Rached (dir.), LiCArC, 13, 9-22. Paris: Classiques Garnier.
  • Pavis, P. (1996). L'Analyse des spectacles. Paris: Nathan.
  • Sadgrove, Ph. (1996). The Egyptian Theatre in the Nineteenth Century 1799-1882. Berkshire: Ithaca Press.
  • Schechner, R. (2020). Performance Studies: An Introduction (4th ed.). London / New York: Routledge.
  • Trabelsi, O. (2023). Sīdī Molière. Traduire et adapter Molière en arabe (Liban, Égypte, Tunisie, 1847-1967). Paris: Classiques Garnier.

Call for Contributions – Regards Journal, Issue 35

FILMIC DIARIES, SOUND DIARIES: INTIMATE AND COLLECTIVE DOCUMENTARY ESSAYS

The "diaries" discussed here may consist of assemblages of filmic and/or sound fragments. They take the form of documentary essays, sometimes personal, and sketch out ideas based on things seen, heard, and experienced. Diaries can resemble either an intimate filmic and/or sound journal or a chronicle, particularly when created within the anti-democratic contexts of the first quarter of the 21st century. However, proposals for collective initiatives in documentary essays are also highly encouraged. The diaries form lies between the spontaneity of lived experience and long-term reflexivity. From a pluralistic perspective, they oscillate between shared momentum, societal assessment, and the importance of preserving collective memory. For sound diaries, as well as filmic essay diaries, this issue of Regards will pay special attention to works that are genuinely engaged both artistically and politically. Whether individual or group-based, proposals must align with the journal's editorial focus on the diversity of the Middle East, North Africa, and Mediterranean countries. Contributions are not limited to the examples and suggestions mentioned in this call for submissions.

The Diaries as a Form of Documentary Essay

While written diaries are often individual, filmic and sound forms embrace plurality. This is especially true in authoritarian or repressive contexts, where the right to speech and image is controlled by a minority. Consider, for instance, the popular uprisings of the 2010s and their ongoing sociopolitical echoes, which have reignited the question of citizens' self-representation. As members of Bidayyat wrote in their collective's introductory text during the Syrian revolution, "ordinary people found themselves face-to-face with images they had filmed with their own hands." But what collective realities are these diaries meant to represent? From revolt and demands to siege, occupation, and destruction, the spectrum of resistance is vast. At the heart of intensity or the rhythm of daily life, documentary resistance diaries capture presences that defy normalization and indifference. Recording becomes the last possible political gesture, offering a counter-visuality, resisting erasure, affirming presence through images, and demanding visibility to be recognized as full human subjects.

However, we are also interested in proposals that question the dynamics of these vernacular images of daily life. Media transformations and the supposed democratic qualities of new self-narration tools remain to be interrogated. Social media and the internet compel us to rethink the very form of the filmic and sound "diaries," which borders on the virtual journal. For example, the work of the Syrian collective Abounaddara shifts the discourse on missing images and complicates the notion of the right to image for vulnerable individuals by demanding respect for the dignity of victims of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Against the glorification of amateur testimony (images filmed on mobile phones and posted on social media), the collective has championed, since 2011, a representation of Syrian society by itself, in all its complexity.

This research axis around collective approaches invites exploration of both the sustained work of specific collectives, serving as long-term chronicles (e.g., Mosireen in Egypt or the filmmakers of Still Recording in Syria), and composite filmic forms that creatively gather the work of multiple filmmakers (From Ground Zero, a film coordinated by Rashid Masharawi, composed of 22 short films by displaced Palestinian filmmakers in Gaza, or Letters, 17 filmic letters by Lebanese filmmakers assembled by Josef Khallouf). Contributions may engage with historical approaches, studying past collective practices, or focus on ultra-contemporary filmic and sound production, as well as the interplay of temporalities.

In the context of this issue dedicated to documentary diaries, we will also emphasize reflexive approaches and temporal perspectives. While the diaries form often embodies spontaneity and is rooted in the present, it evolves over time and can also reflect in the long term. It may therefore be worthwhile to explore the role of archives, current practices surrounding them, and their retroactive impact when compiling a logbook. The comprehensive work of Subversive Film, a research and film production collective focused on Palestine, exemplifies this by combining preservation, programming, and creation.

Among the most notable examples of "personal" filmic diaries at the forefront of contemporary experimentation is Contre temps (Al nahar howa al layl; 2024, 345 min.). The director, Ghassan Salhab, describes the essayistic dimension of his filmography as "videos," recalling the Latin meaning of the verb video. Ghassan Salhab's video takes the form of an extensive filmic diaries, entirely shot on a mobile phone. Contre temps serves as a chronicle of five years of Lebanon's political history, beginning on October 17, 2019, with the start of uprisings in the form of popular urban marches and protests, interspersed with struggles against the financial powers that led the country to ruin. The film concludes with a moment from November 2023, poetically transcribing a final phone exchange with a friend in Gaza. Contre temps is both individual diaries and an archive of the search for a refractory commonality.

The diaries forms can also embody clandestinity, emerging in contexts of censorship or through strategies of self-censorship. In the field of filmic documentary, The Silent Majority Speaks by Bani Khoshnoudi is a particularly significant example, transitioning from filmic diaries to a historical fresco. Filmed in Tehran in 2009 during the Green Movement, it was distributed clandestinely under the pseudonym "The Silent Collective" until 2013.

Paths of Sound Documentary

Alongside proposals for articles on filmic essays, this call also welcomes exclusively sound diaries. Among notable works is the radio creation workshop titled Je vous parle de la Syrie by Charlotte Rouault, with the participation of Benoît Bories. This sound documentary is built from testimonies of Syrian women recounting the personal and collective daily life of war and their involvement in the revolution.

Also noteworthy are the soundscapes of Beirut recorded by Rana Eid over several decades, spanning the civil war, reconstruction, the 2006 war, the 2019 civil revolution, the August 4, 2020, port explosion, and Lebanon's economic collapse. Most recently, with Calling Gaza (2024, Arte Radio) and before her passing in November 2024, Marine Vlahovic completed the epilogue of her correspondent's diaries.

Fragments, Research, Creations

The diaries form is also widely used in research-creation contexts. We therefore welcome contributions from researchers who employ these modalities in film and sound creation. Responding to institutional commissions or creating provisional essays, filmmakers produce filmic diaries in the sense of test diaries. Among creation diaries or composite logbooks, partly composed of filmic fragments, those published by David Yon on the website Dérives.tv are particularly intriguing.

Submission Guidelines

Authors wishing to submit an abstract in French, English or Arabic are invited to send it to regards@usj.edu.lb before April 30, 2025.

Please provide the following:

  • An abstract of the article (approx. 500 words)
  • 5–10 keywords
  • A short, indicative bibliography
  • A mini biography (approx. 100 words)

The abstracts will be examined by the editorial committee, and authors will receive an answer before May 15, 2025. The submission deadline for the final article (approx. 5,000 words) is September 15, 2025.

Scientific Committee

  • Hamid Aidouni, PR – Université Abdelmalek Essaadi, Maroc
  • Karl Akiki, MCF – Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Liban
  • Riccardo Bocco, PR – Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Genève, IHEID, Suisse
  • Fabien Boully, MCF – Université Paris Nanterre, France
  • André Habib, PR – Université de Montréal, Canada
  • Dalia Mostafa, MCF – University of Manchester, Angleterre
  • José Moure, PR – Université Paris Panthéon Sorbonne – Paris 1, France
  • Jacqueline Nacache, PR – Université de Paris, France
  • Ghada Sayegh, MCF – IESAV, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Liban
  • Kirsten Scheid, Associate PR – American University of Beirut, Liban

Editor-in-chief: Joseph Korkmaz (Professor, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth)

Issue editors: Robert Bonamy – Aude Fourel – Bahia Bencheikh El Fegoun – Eve Le Fessant Coussonneau

Bibliography

  • Abounaddara Collective, "Dignity has never been photographed", Documenta14, 24 mars 2017.
  • Bidayyat Collective, "Background", s.d.
  • Baiblé Claude, Nouel Thierry, Filmer seul·e, Paris, La Revue Documentaires, n° 26-27, 2016.
  • Bonamy Robert, Cinéma réfractaire – essais documentaires, Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, de l'incidence éditeur, 2025.
  • Brenez Nicole, Khoshnoudi Bani, "Une éthique de la question. Entretien avec Bani Khoshnoudi", Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, septembre 2016.
  • Cassagnau Pascale, Une idée du nord, Beaux-arts de Paris éditions, 2014.
  • Chatelet Claire, Savelli Julie, Récits de soi. Le JE(U) à l'écran, Toulouse, revue Entrelacs, n° 15, 2018.
  • Dabashi Hamid, Dreams of a nation, London New York, Verso, 2006.
  • Gambetti Zeynep, Leticia Sabsay et Judith Butler, Vulnerability in resistance, Durham, Duke University Press, 2016.
  • Mirzoeff Nicholas, The Right to Look: A Counterhistory of Visuality, Duke University Press, 2011.
  • Riboni Ulrike Lune, Vidéoactivismes, Paris, Éditions Amsterdam, 2023.
  • Salhab Ghassan, À contre-jour (depuis Beyrouth), Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, de l'incidence éditeur, 2021.
  • Snowdon Peter, The people are not an image, London, Verso, 2020.
  • Zabunyan Dork, L'insistance des luttes, 2e édition, de l'Incidence éditeur, 2024.

Call for Papers – Regards Journal, Issue 34

Music in the Middle East after the digital revolution

Issue coordinated by: Nicolas Puig (IRD) – Amr Abdelrahim (Sciences Po) – Thomas Michel

At the turning point of the 2000s, musical production and creation were reshaped by technological developments in different regions of the world, including the Near East, marking the advent of a "digital regime" (Olivier, 2017) for music. A new organization of artistic production in the Middle East, from Egypt to Iraq, via the Palestinian Territories, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, is taking place. It is the result of innovations linked to new forms of expression, communication and production of contemporary music, leading to a plurality of musical knowledges and practices that manifest within national and regional dynamics.

This issue of the journal Regards proposes to investigate the dynamics of musical production and forms of dissemination in the contemporary Near East, particularly through the do it yourself practices that have emerged with the advent of home studios and low-cost listening platforms. The challenge of such a study is thus to confront the different aesthetics of today's music, blending diverse intellectual and cultural heritages, mobilizing the affects of nostalgia and those linked to the historical realities shared by the region's inhabitants. The question of understanding the articulation of musical dynamics with social, political and state boundaries and different contexts of conflict will be explored.

This issue will also focus on the complex systems of communication, recording and accumulation of knowledge and practices of Near Eastern artists, following different approaches linked to popular music studies, science and technology studies and contemporary ethnomusicological currents. The aim is to shed light on the modes of legitimacy and authenticity of Near Eastern music. Practices such as featuring and the arrival of streaming platforms like SoundCloud also enable artists, despite physical borders, to create collectively around shared aesthetics and share their creations. The growing intensity of these flows has led to the emergence of new economic players around a "new transnational Arab pop", distinct from the traditional pop industry organized around a Beirut-Riyad axis.

Contributions may focus on the situation of a particular country. For this issue, we are expecting proposals based on situated ethnographies of musical creation, production and dissemination, both nationally and regionally, in a transversal and/or cross-cutting manner within the contemporary Near East.

Submission Guidelines

Authors wishing to submit an abstract (in French, English or Arabic) are invited to send it to regards@usj.edu.lb before September 10, 2024.

Please provide the following:

  • An abstract of the article (approx. 500 words)
  • 5–10 keywords
  • A short, indicative bibliography
  • A mini biography (approx. 100 words)

The abstracts will be examined by the editorial committee, and authors will receive an answer by the end of September 2024. The articles should be submitted before January 15, 2025.

Scientific Committee

  • Hamid Aidouni, PR (Université Abdelmalek Essaadi, Maroc)
  • Karl Akiki, MCF (Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Liban)
  • Riccardo Bocco, PR (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Genève, IHEID, Suisse)
  • Fabien Boully, MCF (Université Paris Nanterre, France)
  • André Habib, PR (Université de Montréal, Canada)
  • Dalia Mostafa, MCF (University of Manchester, Angleterre)
  • José Moure, PR (Université Paris Panthéon Sorbonne – Paris 1, France)
  • Jacqueline Nacache, PR (Université de Paris, France)
  • Ghada Sayegh, MCF (IESAV, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Liban)
  • Kirsten Scheid, Associate PR (American University of Beirut, Liban)

Editor-in-chief: Joseph Korkmaz, PR (Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Liban)

Issue editors: Nicolas Puig (Université Paris Cité) – Amr Abdelrahim (Sciences Po, Paris) – Thomas Michel (IRD, Université Paris Cité)

Bibliography

  • Al Bakri, T., & Mallah, M. (2020). Dabkeh al Djoufieh: Exploring the Sustainability of Jordanian Folklore. Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage, 20(1), 227–245.
  • Allington D., Dueck, B. & Jordanous A. (2015). Networks of Value in Electronic Music: SoundCloud, London, and the Importance of Place. Cultural Trends, 24(3), 211-222.
  • Belkind, N. (2021). Music in conflict. Palestine, Israel and the politics of aesthetic production. SOAS studies in Music, Routledge.
  • Dauncey, H. & Tinker, C. (2014). La Nostalgie dans les musiques populaires. Volume!, 11:1, 7-17.
  • De Blasio, E. (2020). Rap in the Arab World: Between Innovation and Tradition. In G. Mion (Ed.), Mediterranean Contaminations. De Gruyter.
  • Fahmy, Z. (2013). Coming to our Senses: Historicizing Sound and Noise in the Middle East. History Compass, 11(4), 305–15.
  • France, P. (2020). Stream Poker 1 & 2. OrientXXI, juin 2020.
  • Johannsen Igor, J. (2017). Keepin' It Real: Arabic Rap and the Re-Creation of Hip Hop's Founding Myth. Middle East Topics & Arguments, 7.
  • Kraidy, M. (2007). Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the Changing Arab Information Order. International Journal of Communication, 1, 139-156.
  • McDonald, D.A. (2013). Imaginaries of Exile and Emergence in Israeli Jewish and Palestinian Hip Hop. TDR, 57(3), 69-87.
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