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Oliver Shao

Assistant Professor

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Bio

Education: PhD (Ethnomusicology) Indiana University; MMus (Ethnomusicology) School of Oriental and African Studies; BBA, College of William and Mary. Publications: Composing Aid: Music, Refugees, and Humanitarian Politics (Indiana University Press 2023); “‘How is that going to help anyone?’: A Critical Activist Ethnomusicology,” (Oxford University Press, 2021). Awards: 2024 Bruno Nettl Prize Honorable Mention (Society for Ethnomusicology); Social Justice Paper Prize, 2021 (Society for Ethnomusicology); Applied Ethnomusicology Paper Prize, 2021 (Society for Ethnomusicology); University Distinguished Ph.D. Dissertation Award, 2019 (Indiana University); CSAS Paper Prize, 2018 (Central States Anthropological Society); African Libraries Paper Prize, 2016 (Society for Ethnomusicology); Bess Lomax Hawes Paper Award, 2015 (Society for Ethnomusicology).

Personal Statement

Current interests: music and migration; music and violence; music in East Africa; Hip Hop and the Asian Diaspora; applied ethnomusicology

Composing Aid: Music, Refugees, and Humanitarian Politics (Indiana University Press, 2023) provides a critical exploration of music, dance, and performance within the United Nations-administered Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. This work offers valuable insights into the political and social dynamics of long-term refugee camps, the impact and design of musical aid projects, and the reimagining of state and humanitarian approaches to forced migration. In recognition of its contributions to the field, Composing Aid received Honorable Mention for the Society for Ethnomusicology's Bruno Nettl Prize in 2024.

This research has been supported by the following grants and fellowships: The Andrew W. Mellon Graduate Dissertation Fellowship – Mellon Innovating International Research, Teaching and Collaboration (MIIRT); The Ruth Norman Halls Graduate Fellowship (Indiana University’s College of Arts and Sciences); and The United States Department of Education, Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Award.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

What does it mean to hear the world through ?imperial ears?? How can music and sound be used to decolonize minds, bodies, and land? What can listening to music teach us about the interwoven relationships between colonizing and decolonizing forces? This course will address these questions and others through examining the diverse roles of music in various colonial and postcolonial contexts. We will study a range of topics that include British colonialism?s impact on music and sonic practices; the role of music in resistance movements in Africa and Asia-Pacific; and the capacities of music to negotiate, oppose, and refigure colonial legacies. This course aims to strengthen our abilities to hear and critique the echoes and reverberations of coloniality across time and space. Most importantly, we will center our attention on the sounds and songs of indigeneity with an emphasis on the role of musicians and communities involved in generating freedom from oppression. Coursework may include short writing assignments, essays, presentations, and podcasts.

Class Number

1532

Credits

3

Description

This course examines the roots and routes of hip hop from its emergence in New York City to its circulation across select areas of the globe. Why do people living in different parts of the world engage in hip hop? What kinds of aesthetics, ideologies, and behaviors are manifested through hip hop music? How do hip hop scenes differ, and how are they connected? We will discuss these, and other questions, through studying the lived experiences of participants involved in various hip hop music scenes throughout the globe.

Through analyzing films, texts, and audio/visual recordings, we will develop our vocabulary for critically discussing the manifestation of hip hop cultural practices across temporal, spatial, and social boundaries. We will pay particular attention to the ways cross-cultural engagements with hip hop shapes intersecting identities of race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, and nation. We will also consider what hip hop artists can teach us about pressing global issues ranging from racism and sexism to economic marginalization and religious discrimination.

Coursework will include reading responses, short writing assignments, and a final research paper/presentation that focuses on the social life of a hip hop performing artist(s).

Class Number

1466

Credits

3

Description

Selected issues in music and related areas are studied. Topics vary each semester and may include (but are not limited to): musical structure and form, aural literacy, opera studies, music and words, music and the visual arts, history of recorded music, history of the oral tradition, semiotics, communications theory, and others.

Class Number

2167

Credits

3

Description

What does the climate crisis sound like? How can music increase, reduce, and stop carbon pollution? Why is it necessary to interrogate the relationship between the culture industries and climate disasters? This course examines the intricate connections between music, sound, and anthropogenic climate change, with a particular focus on the entwined forces of colonialism and capitalism. Drawing on scholarship in ethnomusicology, historical musicology, sound studies, and environmental studies, we will explore how musical practices and media industries contribute to environmental degradation and perpetuate the inequities of the climate crisis. We will also study how music and sound can inspire and support more sustainable ways of living. Coursework will include oral and written assignments, along with activities where students apply research methods to their own engagements with this urgent existential issue.

Class Number

2402

Credits

3