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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.

“Music is something that you can’t see, and painting is something that you can’t hear...so they balance each other’.” (1)

Join a public dialogue about global contemporary art and ideas! Each year the New York nonprofit apexart holds an open call for curatorial proposals. Out of hundreds of submissions from around the world, three are chosen to become apexart exhibitions through an online jury process. Students in this class will be part of the jury. Initial readings and assignments will address the history of New York nonprofit spaces and apexart’s position within that landscape over three decades.

This seminar explores the cinematic vampire as a symbolic curator, critic, and connoisseur, one who collects, consumes, and reflects cultural concerns. Through films paired with philosophical and critical texts, we examine how vampires serve as mirrors, archivists, aesthetes, and subversive observers and how filmmakers stylistically foreground or reframe aspects of the vampire mythos.

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.

Historical Dress: The Park-McCullough Project Fall ‘25

Working in collaboration with the local Park-McCullough Historic Governor’s Mansion, students will create a new archive of the historic dress collection.

This course explores the life, works, and revolutionary contributions of Harry Partch (1901–1974), 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’s unconventional approach to tuning, his rejection of equal temperament, and his philosophy of music as an integrated theatrical and corporeal experience.