ETHN 210 - Music and the Politics of Identity

This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies
Semester Offered: Second Semester
Credits (Range): 3
Attribute: CNDP, CD
This class examines music as a poweerful means for the construction and articulation of identity around the world. We will explore how individuals and groups negotiate and project who they are (and what matters to them) through music and related arts - as a strategy for both unification and differentiation, along wih the ways these identities are regulated, mediated, and framed by others. A series of case studies in both historical and contemporary contexts will take into account the ways gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nation, class, and community - and their intersections - become inscribed and ecoded within musical practice. We will also examine the ways these articulations are read and interpreted by others, i.e. discourses of racism, sexism etc. Topics considered will include the forging of musical styles as articulations of emergent identities; music as resistance to hegemonic policies; music in diasporic communities; and the politics of representation (e.g. minorities in multicultural/postcolonial states).
Instructor: K. Meizel
Prerequisites & Notes
Enrollment Limit: 20
Consent of instructor required.