Event

Dr. Ioanida Costache

Hearing Romani-ness: Affect, Subjectivity, and Musical Histories

April 4, 2023 (Tuesday) — 5:15 pm to 7:00 pm

Lerner Center
Penn Music Building
201 S. 34th Street, Room 101

ABSTRACT

If listening is a primary way of acknowledging subject formations, can we hear the Roma? How does music structure the political and social belonging of Romani peoples in ways that reify and work against processes of identity formation and racialization? Through an ethnographic focus on Romani musicians, I show how intergenerational memory of Romani trauma — enslavement and genocide — is discreetly imbedded in sonic expressions of sorrow within a bounded repertoire that in being kept private served as a vehicle for Romani collective healing. By unravelling the affective song-story tightly bound to Romani music and art, Romani actors reclaim Romani cultural heritage, recovering subjectivities, epistemologies, and histories.

BIO

Dr. Ioanida Costache is an ethnomusicologist and sound studies scholar specializing in Romani artist practices. Her work explores the legacies of Romani historical trauma, and the feminist and de-colonial critiques of the present, inscribed in Romani music, sound, and art. Her writing has been published in EuropeNow, RevistaARTA, Critical Romani Studies, and is forthcoming in European History Quarterly. Her research has been supported by two Fulbright Grants, the Gerald J. Lieberman Fellowship from Stanford University, and a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Council of European Studies. She has held visiting fellowships at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the USC Shoah Foundation.

ATTENDANCE & REGISTRATION

This event is free and open to the public. If you attend in person, there is no need to register. We ask that you join us in person if at all possible, but for those of you who are unable to physically attend we encourage you to participate via Zoom. Registration link to attend virtually is below:

https://upenn.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0oc-CrrT8jEtbVbXSwnokghxbhj5jLXx-d

NOTE: After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

ABOUT

This lecture is part of the 2022-23 Penn Music Colloquium Series. The Department of Music's main Colloquium Series showcases new research by leading scholars in music and sound studies and composers both in the United States and internationally.  All Music Colloquia will take place in Room 101 of the Lerner Center on Tuesdays at 5:15 PM.