| Decolonizing Music |
Liberal Arts |
3215 (002) |
Fall 2024 |
|
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
1654
Credits
3
|
| Roots and Routes of Hip Hop |
Liberal Arts |
3216 (001) |
Spring 2025 |
|
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
|
| Top: Resounding Asian America |
Liberal Arts |
3252 (002) |
Spring 2025 |
|
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
|
| Music, War, and Peace |
Liberal Arts |
3253 (001) |
Fall 2024 |
|
Description
This course examines the multifaceted ways music is interwoven with social processes of war and peace. In what ways do people use musical sounds to control, torture, and kill individuals and populations? What types of concepts elucidate the ways music reproduces oft-hidden forms of violence? How can music heal trauma and resolve conflict? Throughout this course, we will work towards developing a deeper understanding about the ways music is used to support, oppose, and heal from actions and consequences made in the name of war and peace.
Through studying films, texts, and audio recordings, students are expected to think critically and write persuasively about the diverse ways musicians, politicians, military personnel, and civilians use music in wartime contexts. While case studies will vary, we will pay particular attention to the role of Western popular music in the United States-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A broader goal of this course is to analyze music in ways that generate critical responses to the permeation of violence throughout society and everyday life.
Coursework will include reading responses, short writing assignments, a mid-term, and a final project.
|
Class Number
1636
Credits
3
|
