We live in an era when millions of people across the globe—victims of forced migration, asylum seekers, refugees, and mobile workers—are on the move. Music often can tell more about the migration experience than statistical analysis and surveys. This course is about the experiences of immigrants and refugees in the United States and elsewhere, investigating the role that music plays in constructing and sustaining community identity and transnational connections. We will examine a variety of historic and contemporary case studies, engaging interdisciplinary scholarship from ethnomusicology, anthropology, Gender Studies, Black Studies and more. We will discuss ways that immigrants, asylum seekers, refugees, mobile workers, and victims of forced migration use music to construct and negotiate ethnic, racial, national, and transnational identifications and how gender, language, class, and sexuality inform these processes. Our course will also be oriented toward arts activism and techniques of peacebuilding. Throughout the term, we will work beyond the classroom with refugee populations in Southern Vermont and upstate New York.
Learning Outcomes:
Students will:
• Study topics of music and migration through engaging a range of interdisciplinary texts, films, and listening examples.
• Develop an understanding of contemporary issues in migration studies
• Complete a final project on issues of music and migration to be chosen by the student
• Build connections and engage with local refugee communities through musical exchange and dialogue
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Corequisites: Participation in activities outside class time (days and times to be determined) with local refugee populations. Music exchanges of different kinds (sharing one's own music through informal performance, sharing playlists, etc) will be a part of this experience. Attendance at relevant Music, SCT, CAPA events (dates to be provided at the start of term in syllabus).
Course Level: 2000-level
Credits: 4
M/Th 1:40PM - 3:30PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 16
Course Frequency: Every 2-3 years
Categories: 2000 , All courses , Ethnomusicology , Four Credit , Fully In-Person , Peace Studies , SCT
Tags: CAPA , Diaspora , ethnomusicology , Global Music , Immigration , Migration , Music Studies , Peacebuilding , Refugees , SCT , social justice