Listening to the City: Soundscapes, Music, and Place

Catalog description

What can we learn about a place from the sound(s) that emanate from it? In this course, we will examine sound in a range of contexts, questioning everything from notions of “quietness” -- and its frequent association with wealth and whiteness -- to how we perceive race via musical genres. Throughout the course, students will engage in several experientially based learning activities, regularly conducting ethnographic fieldwork by using Philadelphia as a social laboratory. Students will read books and scholarly articles from a range of academic disciplines, including, but not limited to, City and Regional Planning, Sociology, Black Studies, Geography, Sound Studies, and Musicology. We will also watch films and listen to songs, endeavoring to learn about place via its aural architecture.