Making Music American: Critical Heritage Studies

Catalog description

This seminar offers a critical and comparative exploration of American music genres that operate as "heritage music" or "ethnic music" in the context of American multiculturalism. We will collectively investigate how musical practice and related discourse can construct, express, perpetuate, and sometimes challenge various cultural identities, community affiliations, and political ideologies. We will particularly attend to public performance contexts, including music festivals, club dancefloors, and live-streaming/archived online performances. Case studies focus on rural Southern "folk" genres, Chicago blues and house, Asian American taiko ensembles, and norteño/tejano dance musics (from huapango to Selena). Readings draw on historical and ethnographic scholarship grounded in critical heritage studies and critical race theory. Limited to junior-year American Studies and Ethnic Studies concentrators.