Instructor: Kate Alexander
Mon/Wed | 9:30 AM - 10:45 AM | In-Person
Spring 2025
This course takes a regional approach to sonic heritage by exploring the intersections of ethnicity and place in North American musical cultures. Focusing on Canada, the United States, and the U.S.-Mexico border region, students will examine the historical and contemporary lived experiences of ethnic communities within North America through analysis of their sounding cultures. Musical case studies provide the pathway to understand culture, develop skill in the critical analysis of musical sound and performance, and identify the interconnections of music with the lives, histories, politics, and beliefs of the people and societies which make and consume it. This will be accomplished through reading, listening, and writing assignments, as well as musical performance workshops, media, and direct engagement with cultural practitioners and scholars.