SCSM @ Mercer University
March 3-5, 2022
While you’re here, don’t forget to renew your membership for a discounted rate on Annual Meeting registration!
Schedule and Program
NOTE: The conference will begin at the McCorkle Music Building on the Mercer campus, which is a 15-minute walk from the conference hotels. Parking is also available closer to the Music Building in the McCorckle Lot (green/purple), and on the street on Colman and Adams. See also the campus map.
Schedule Overview
- Thursday, March 3
- 12:30–1:30PM Conference Registration
- 1:30–8:00PM Breakout Sessions, Keynote, Concert, and Banquet (included in registration)
- Friday, March 4
- 8:00AM – 6:00PM Sessions, Panel, and a Business Meeting Luncheon (lunch provided)
- Dinner on your own, followed by an off-campus Lecture Recital and the Graduate Student Reception
- Saturday, March 6
- 8:00AM – 12:30PM Sessions, Graduate Student Panel, and a Final Sendoff
- 7:30PM Optional post-conference concert: Get your tickets for “A Night of Georgia Music.”
Dr. Jean Kidula
Jean Ngoya Kidula, Professor of Music (Ethnomusicology) at the University of Georgia, holds a Ph.D. from the University of California (1998), an M.M. from East Carolina University, and a B.Ed. (Music/French) from the University of Nairobi. Her research and publications are in African musicology, indigenous, contemporary and popular music in Africa, gospel music in Africa and Sweden, African-American religious music, and composition in Africa and the Diaspora.
Keynote Adress
Community Resurgence: Translating, Interpreting, and Domesticating the “worship song"
Few doubt that most of the Christian world in the 20th century was ‘united’ in song through hymns. Translating the hymn texts into other languages as part of Christian mission strategy embedded western musical performance practices more deeply into other worldviews while also demonstrating diverse musical and cultural ends. In this way, a ‘Christian community’ was fashioned with hymns as both agglutinative yet also disjunctive frameworks.
The 21st century has brought to the fore an alternative unifying rubric – different from the popular understanding of a hymn. Included in this rubric are genre names such as ‘praise and worship.’ Promotion and dissemination of these repertories by the global media, economy, industry and politics lend a ‘unifying’ reading of trending repertoire. Translating the resultant artistic package through diverse cultural performance practices seem to serve purposes similar to those of the hymns.
Drawing from video recordings of Sinach’s “Way Maker,” I will investigate, problematize and theorize on Christian community being created but not necessarily united through a “worship” song that became a global anthem especially from 2020 onward. By reading the song through the work of scholars such as Lamin Saneh, I suggest that audio and visual interpretations of “Way Maker” may seem to flatten the artistic and community virtues of the piece; however, they challenge notions of translation that made the Christian hymn a ‘uniting’ emblem of the 20th century.
Our COVID-19 Policy
Note: We are planning on an in-person meeting, with some presentations given virtually. Regardless, all conference participants need to be available during the days
of the conference for synchronous sessions.
In an effort to promote a safe environment and adhere to reasonable COVID protocols, we require all in-person attendees, presenters, and performers to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 at the time of the conference. Upon arrival at the conference, attendees will be asked to show a CDC-issued vaccination card (including the name of the person vaccinated, the type of vaccination provided, and the date that the last dose was administered), or picture of such, as proof of vaccination. Alternately, attendees may use the free VaxYes service to verify their vaccination and identity. Based on rapidly changing conditions, Mercer and SCSM reserve the right to update this policy, for the safety of the campus and all participants, and grant religious exemptions on a case-by-case basis.
Travel Info
By air, fly to Atlanta, Georgia (ATL).
Ground Transport to Mercer:
- Take the Groome Shuttle. NOTE: you MUST CALL to book the $59 Shuttle directly to Mercer; 478-471-1616.
- Rent a car to drive the 1 hour to Mercer in Macon.
Grad Student?
Submit your paper to compete for the Graduate Student Paper Prize and be honored at the annual meeting, featured in our Newsletter, and win $250! Submissions due February 21!
Call for papers
Deadline: October 1 (CLOSED)
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