The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at BZU, along with the Academy of Music and Drama at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, jointly hosted a symposium on song and music among Palestinians, in Jerash, Jordan, during 19-21 February 2010.  The symposium was the first step within a three-year project, run by the two parties, partially funded by the Swedish Research Council, which aims to initiate a process leading to the publication of an anthology.

Nineteen people, including musicologists, anthropologists, musicians, singers and cultural workers, participated in the symposium, which was led by the project directors, Dr Moslih Kanaaneh from BZU's Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Dr Stig-Magnus Thorsén from the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg.  Palestinian and international scholars were represented, from BZU (Dr Sharif Kanaana), the University of Montreal (Dr Yara El-Ghadban, Kiven Strohm), Royal Holloway University in London (Dr Rachel Beckles Willson), University of Chicago (Issa Boulos), University of California (Dr Sunaina Maira), Indiana University (Dr David McDonald), Lahore University of Science Management (Dr Magid Shihade), and the Conservatory of Music at Dublin Institute of Technology (Dr Jennifer Sinnamon), independent writer Randa Safieh, and Janne Louise Andersen, from Sabreen's "Project hip-hop Palestine". Palestinian musician Ahmad Al-Khatib and singers Reem Talhami and Sanaa Moussa also participated, as did Nader Jalal from the Palestinian Ministry of Culture and Saher Yaseen from the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

The symposium aimed to gather potential authors for the articles which will be included in the anthology, as well as other experts in the field who acted as consultants, in order to propose articles and engage in a dialogue about the issues raised.  The main question which will be addressed in the anthology is "What has music meant to people in Palestinian society during the 20th Century?" and the scope of the project therefore includes a wide array of musical genres, geographical areas and interpretations.

The articles proposed addressed subjects including: Political events and their impact on the traditional music of Palestine; Palestinian Protest Song in the Al-Aqsa Intifada; music and resistance; the Palestinian hip-hop movement in Palestine and the Diaspora; Music, the Palestinians and the Missions of the West; the question of Palestinian identity as told through folk songs; Grief songs as healing rituals in Palestinian heritage; and politics and masculinities.  Three days of intensive debate were held around these issues, and crucially, new contacts and academic partnerships were forged.  Proposals and structures were molded and developed at the symposium, and subsequently authors will expand their proposals and research into full articles for the anthology.

A further symposium will be held in the spring of 2011, where completed articles will be presented to the members of the network, and the project directors hope to publish the anthology by 2012.

An important aspect of the project is the creation of a network of scholars, initially comprised of those working on the current anthology, but later to include a wider network of individuals working on research in the area of music and song in Palestinian society.  It is hoped that this network will continue to grow after the end of the current project in 2012, in order to facilitate the work of scholars in the field.  A website is currently under construction in order to ease communication between project participants and to provide information to other interested parties.