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In this course we will examine the role of music as a vehicle for political and social change in Africa. Our focus will be music-making throughout the continent of Africa during the nationalist struggles that resulted in independent African states and how musicians responded (and continue to respond) to the persistent challenges faced by those post-colonial states.
鈥淢usic is something that you can鈥檛 see, and painting is something that you can鈥檛 hear...so they balance each other鈥.鈥 (1)
This course will explore the construction and experience of gender and sexuality in the Middle East through a performative lens. Drawing on research in ethnomusicology, queer and gender studies, anthropology and Middle Eastern history, the course will examine performance (music, dance, theater, poetry and more) as a process of representation, assertion, and sometimes transgression of sexuality and gender identities. This course will delve into the ways that performance, gender, and sexuality relate to ethnicity, nationalism, modernity, colonialism, and religion.
鈥I, at least, am not a Marxist鈥&苍产蝉辫;Karl Marx
This course explores the life, works, and revolutionary contributions of Harry Partch (1901鈥1974), one of the most original and influential American composers of the 20th century. Partch was a pioneer of microtonal music and developed a unique 43-tone scale, which led him to construct his own instruments to realize his visionary compositions. Students will examine Partch鈥檚 unconventional approach to tuning, his rejection of equal temperament, and his philosophy of music as an integrated theatrical and corporeal experience.
How does love emerge under conditions of war? This seminar explores what it means to sustain intimate relations in the face of overwhelming violence. Through the Anthropology of Kinship, as well as through methods developed across the fields of Queer Studies, Black Studies, and Postcolonial Studies, this course considers how intimacy and love figure in the production and maintenance of racialized, classed, and gendered difference.
How can anthropology help us listen more critically and carefully? Each class session will consider one ethnographic approach, which students will apply to their listening. Following in the anthropological tradition, where concepts both reveal social processes and are themselves modified by the material at hand, students will consider how podcast episodes they listen to can be elucidated by and also place pressure on each class鈥檚 conceptual approach.