International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance

A Non-Governmental Organization in Formal Consultative Relations with UNESCO

Minutes of 16th Assembly of ICTM National and Regional Representatives

Held at Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal, on 25 July 2022.

Chair: Svanibor Pettan, ICTM President.

In attendance (National and Regional representatives): Ardian Ahmedaja (Albania), Silvia Citro (Argentina), Tatevik Shakhkulyan (Armenia), Brigitta Scarfe (Australia and New Zealand), Sarah Weiss (Austria), Sanubar Baghirova (Azerbaijan), Sayeem Rana (Bangladesh), Pedro Acosta (Brazil), Hélène Sechehaye (Belgium), Jasmina Talam (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Kisito Essele (Cameroon), Javier Silva-Zurita (Chile), Tanja Halužan (Croatia), Zuzana Jurková (Czech Republic), María Gabriela López Yánez (Ecuador), Elina Seye (Finland), Teona Lomsadze (Georgia), Dorit Klebe (Germany), Daniel Avorgbedor (Ghana), Athena Katsanevaki (Greece), Beatriz Herrera Corado (Guatemala), Dániel Lipták (Hungary), Urmimala Sarkar Munsi (India), Farah Zahra (Iraq), Adrian Scahill (Ireland), Moshe Morad (Israel), Manami Suzuki (Japan), Fadi Al-Ghawanmeh (Jordan), Zakiya Sapenova (Kazakhstan), Anda Beitāne (Latvia), Tan Sooi Beng (Malaysia), Philip Ciantar (Malta), Kanykei Mukhtarova (Kyrgzystan), Marilio Wane (Mozambique), Ram Prasad Kadel (Nepal), Huib Schippers (Netherlands), Marie Agatha Ozah (Nigeria), Velika Stojkova Serafimovska (North Macedonia), Don Niles (Papua New Guinea), Ewa Dahlig-Turek (Poland), Susana Sardo (Portugal), Mareia Quintero (Puerto Rico), Ioanida Costache (Romania), Iva Nenić (Serbia), Joe Peters (Singapore), Bernard Garaj (Slovakia), Mojca Kovačič (Slovenia), Susana Moreno (Spain), Lasanthi Manaranjanie Kalinga Dona (Sri Lanka), Krister Malm (Sweden), Britta Sweers (Switzerland), Pornprapit Phoasavadi (Thailand), Abdullah Akat (Turkey), Olha Kolomyyets (Ukraine), Marita Fornaro (Uruguay), Kathrin Lengwinat (Venezuela). Also attending:  Lee Tong Soon (Secretary General), Carlos Yoder (Executive Secretary). 

The meeting followed the agenda attached here

1. Opening of meeting and welcome by the President

  1. Pettan opened the meeting at 18:45, thanking all for attending the meeting of the Assembly, both in person and remotely.

2. Consideration of the minutes of the last meeting and business arising

  1. Pettan called for a motion to approve the Minutes of the 15th Assembly of ICTM National and Regional Representatives, as published on the ICTM website. Moved by Sarkar (India), seconded by Sweers (Switzerland), motion carried.

3. Brief self-introductions by each representative

  1. Attendees introduced themselves and their represented countries/regions. The total number of of represented countries/regions was 57. 

4. Announcement of any business arising from Executive Board (EB) meetings of interest to the representatives

  1. Pettan considered the meeting to be "an excellent opportunity" to encourage African colleagues to be more involved in the activities of the Council, in particular as the next World Conference would be held in Ghana the following year.
  2. Ozah (Nigeria) reported that the Study Group on African Musics had met earlier in the day, and asked the members of the Assembly to share their telephone numbers with her, in order to create WhatsApp or Telegram groups that would facilitate the coordination of their efforts. 
  3. Ozah communicated that a small subsection of the Programme Committee of the 2023 World Conference (which she co-chairs with Brian Diettrich) would "screen" abstracts before they are submitted, in order to increase the possibility of being accepted. 
  4. Avorgbedor (Ghana) invited all the members of the Assembly to travel to Ghana in person the next year. Pettan explained that citizens of most countries would need to obtain visas to enter Ghana, and advised to start the process sooner rather than later. 

5. Main topic for discussion #1: “Collaborative projects”

  1. Tan (Malaysia) introduced the topic on collaborative projects by briefly summarizing the 2021 ICTM Dialogues project, and announcing that a resulting digital publication was "almost ready".
  2. Tan presented a new project for the Assembly's consideration: the compilation of a list of terms and terminologies which had been rejected by publishers (mostly but not limited to those based in Europe and in North America). As an example, Tan discussed the term "musics," which publishers would sometimes reject even though it could be "a very useful use of terminology." 
  3. Tan reported that she, Weiss (Austria) and Mayco Santaella had done some preliminary work on this project, and invited the Assembly to participate. She finished her presentation by adding that they would set up a webform to receive submissions for these rejected terms, and that they would circulate it "very soon" to the members of the Assembly.
  4. Herrera Corado (Guatemala) reported that the EB Committee for Translations (EBCT) had been discussing the possibility of translating some contents of the ICTM website. She expressed that this project could later evolve into creating new opportunities for publishing in languages other than English, and/or for translating articles of the Yearbook for Traditional Music. She added that the EBCT was "open for ideas."
  5. Citro (Argentina) reported that the EBCT was discussing the possibility of proposing new subcommittees for ICTM Prizes in languages other than English.
  6. Jurková (Czech Republic) related how in the Czech Republic she had worked in a similar programme within the discipline of social anthropology, and warned that it was a very complex, demanding, and resource-intensive project, fuelled by a large grant. 
  7. Weiss (Austria) supported the idea of translating existing ICTM contents, and asked for an example on how publishing in different languages, perhaps a special issue of the Yearbook, would actually work. Citro replied that the idea was to "start small," suggesting that articles could be included in the authors' native languages, accompanied by English summaries. 
  8. López Yánez (Ecuador) strongly supported Tan's project about terminology, suggesting that subcommittees could be created to collect terms from the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds.
  9. López Yánez described a possible multilingual Yearbook that would feature articles in many different languages in print form, with links to English translations online. She conceptualized that such a format for the Yearbook would reflect "a world that does not only speak English."
  10. Schippers (Netherlands) warned that making translations was "a lot of work" and advised to be "very practical" about it. He related his recent experience in publishing a volume in English and Mandarin as a result of the latest symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Applied Ethnomusicology, which had been held in both languages simultaneously. 
  11. Schippers considered that a multilingual Yearbook would be "unsellable" if readers would be able to understand only one or two articles per volume. He stressed the necessity to find a way to work that would be also appealing to the commercial side of operations.
  12. Sardo (Portugal) referred to the journal Translingual Discourses in Ethnomusicology, a publication that aims to translate "important" articles from local languages into English. She described the effort as being "huge, very difficult work," stressing that good funding was paramount for the project's success. 
  13. Sechehaye (Belgium) explained how the Belgian Musicological Society handled the issue of translations in its journal Revue belge de musicologie / Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Muziekwetenschap: articles are included in the native language of the authors (either English, Dutch, or French) while abstracts are translated into those three languages.
  14. Al-Ghawanmeh (Jordan) explained that in Jordan scholars are "forced to find journals that would rate high on SCOPUS", which meant publishing chiefly in English. He suggested that submissions should be evaluated in their native languages, and if they would be fit for the Yearbook they should be translated into English, either as  abstracts or as a full-length articles. 
  15. Acosta (Brazil) gave a statement about the status of academia in general and of music and dance research in Brazil. 
  16. Baghirova (Azerbaijan) proposed a collaborative project that would collect into a database the most important works by local authors. She added that while she supported the idea of collaborative projects, she could not see clearly how they would be realized. 
  17. Pettan thanked the members of the Assembly for their contributions, and expressed that their concerns would be brought to the Executive Board and to the next General Editor of the Yearbook, Lonán Ó Briain.

6. Main topic for discussion #2: How could National and Regional Representatives contribute to the growth of the World Network?

  1. Pettan reviewed a list of countries where the Council was not officially represented, and where representatives were inactive (e.g., by not submitting a report for the Bulletin in more than 3 years). He exhorted the members of the Assembly to be active, and to propose colleagues in countries without representation to become involved. 
  2. Niles (Papua New Guinea) urged representatives to submit reports for the Bulletin, adding that for many people, reading those reports was  "the only way" to learn what was going on in the world of music and dance studies in a particular country or region. 

7. Appointment of two members to the Nomination Committee of the 2023 ICTM Elections

  1. After outlining the responsibilities of the members of the Nomination Committee, Pettan asked for two volunteers to join the Nomination Committee of the 2023 ICTM Election.
  2. Seye (Finland) and Jurkova volunteered to serve, and after a brief discussion, Pettan called for a motion to appoint them to the Nomination Committee of the 2023 ICTM Election. Moved by Beitāne, seconded by Tan, motion carried.

8. Any other business

  1. Citro raised the issue of membership fees, stating that in some part of the world they were very difficult to afford. Pettan answered that the Executive Board was exploring the possibility of implementing a tiered membership system that would adapt according to the country from which a member would join.
  2. Schippers suggested that the Council could use the "Big Mac index" as a means to establish a tiered membership fee structure. 
  3. Herrera Corado expressed that some people could not find the supported membership forms.
  4. Sardo related how the European Society of South Asian Studies enforced a rule to ensure global participation in their conferences, which are always based in Europe: at least 45% of their participants must be from South Asia. She added that the Council should need to implement similar strategies to ensure a diverse participation at World Conferences. 

9. Adjournment

  1. Pettan called for a motion to adjourn the 16th Assembly of ICTM National and Regional Representatives. Moved by Niles, seconded by Sechehaye. Meeting adjourned at 20:05.

We hereby certify that this document comprises the Minutes of 16th Meeting of the Assembly of ICTM National and Regional Representatives, held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 25 July 2022, and that its contents have been examined by us and that to the best of our knowledge and belief the content thereof is true, correct, and complete.

Lee Tong Soon, Secretary General

Carlos Yoder, Executive Secretary