MUSC7500 - Comparative Oceanic Music Studies

In this course, we read widely across Caribbean and Indian Ocean Studies to ask: what can scholars of music and sound gain from moving beyond the narrow confines of the national to investigate oceans as spaces of both boundary-formation and boundary-crossing? We consider the interrelations between music and: various colonialisms (British, French, Portuguese); the formation of creole cultures; world religions (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity); media circulations; ontological difference; discourses of ethnic difference and ethnonationalism; and climate change. Noting controversies surrounding comparative approaches in ethnomusicology, we ask whether a decolonial approach to comparative music studies is possible.

Open to graduate students from all departments. See department website (under course tab) for current term course description: https://music.sas.upenn.edu