27^e année, 9 novembre 2026

Prison Songs of the Mediterranean

3-4 June 2027, Athens

Call for Papers for the second international conference

MusiX Lab, Athens Concert Hall (Megaron Musikis), Vas. Sofias Ave. & Kokkali St. 1, 115 21 Athens

Hosted by the Friends of Music Society [ Σύλλογος Οι Φίλοι της Μουσικής

This present Call for Papers is an invitation to scholars and practitioners to submit proposals for papers for our second international conference on “Prison Songs of the Mediterranean”.

In 2026, during the symposium of the Mediterranean Music Study Group of the ICTMD at Ege University in Izmir, a dedicated prison song strand was scheduled for the final day of the symposium, to great interest from a wide variety of scholars. As a continuation of that original launch, we are now organising a full conference on the same topic, which will be held in Athens at the start of June 2027. Our intention is to expand and build on the work already done.

Athens is a particularly appropriate locale for our conference, because the development of Greekmusic, both popular and classical, is inextricably linked to experiences of imprisonment during Greece’s two periods of fascism.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of The Friends of Music Society in hosting us.

If you wish to propose a paper, or would like to register to attend the conference, write to the conference organiser

Submission of Proposals

If you wish to present a paper at the conference, please send an ABSTRACT of not more than 200 words.

Please include the TITLE of the paper and your NAME and INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION (if any).

Please also include a brief BIO / CV of not more than 100 words.

Proposals should be sent by e-mail to the address above.

PLEASE NOTE: The DEADLINE for submissions is 15 January 2027.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent on 28 February 2027.

Below you will find the original Call for Papers for the Izmir colloquium, which will give you an idea of the range of topics that we hope to encompass in Athens.

Prospectus

By definition, prison is a place of confinement and constriction. It is also a place that is concealed from the public gaze. It is, furthermore, a place that is inhabited by song. And sometimes that song breaks out of the confines and wins residence rights in society as a whole.

Each of the countries of the Mediterranean basin has its own prison specificities. But because of the endlessly changing nature of empires and governing regimes there are also shared commonalities that are of historic interest. It would be interesting to study these in relation to song.

When Alan Lomax did his musical recording tour in the Mediterranean in the 1950s, he addressed this repertoire – after all, he and his father had made the foundational sound recordings of prison work songs in the USA. We are interested to build on the work that he did with his Mediterranean recordings.

This is a field where work needs to be done.

From work that we have done already, it is clear that there are a number
of specific subject areas that could usefully be examined within the
overall concept. For instance:

In Sicily and Southern Italy there is a large repertoire of songs related to
prisons and the Mafia.

In Tunisia there is a popular culture of prison songs (zindali) associated
with figures such as Salah Farzeit.

In Egypt we have the notable prison-song contributions of Sheikh Imam and Ahmed Fuad Negm, who sang about prison and who were also in and out of prison themselves.

In Greece, it is documented that the core repertoires of Rebetiko developed in and around prisons, and many songs speak about prison.

In the nature of things, Ottoman and Turkish culture developed a culture of prison songs that have come down to the present day.

And, as we know, there is a trans-Mediterranean bridging of hip-hop / rap, which integrally links the countries of North Africa with Europe (most notably France); in this repertoire of songs prison occupies a central place.

Additionally there will be work songs associated with the forced labour regimes of colonialism, and the songs associated with prison labour on board rowing galleys.

This list of topics is just illustrative. Obviously there are many other possible areas where research needs to be conducted.

For your interest, below we list some notable prison songs, from both the north and the south shores of the Mediterranean
We look forward to hearing from you.

Video clips of songs

Zindali music in Tunisia

Greek Rebetiko song: “I went into prison”, Michalis Gennitsaris

Sheikh Imam – “Build your palaces in our fields"

Anis Dziri – The best-known North African prison song

Saïda Menebhi – Poème en détention – Morocco

Algerian / harraga /film

Kery James – “Racailles” – French hip-hop

Cosimo Monteleone – “Oh Nero Nero”

Hama Jaza – “Sedara” – Kurdistan

Pino Masi / Alfredo Bandelli – “Liberare tutti”