Issues in Ethnomusicology (2011)

Classes: Monday 9:00-11:50AM, Arts & Convocation Hall (Old Arts Building) A 403

Instructor: Dr. Federico Spinetti

Office: 3-34A Arts & Convocation Hall; office hours: Wednesday 10:00-12:00am or by appointment. Tel. 492-7534; email: spinetti@ualberta.ca

Course Description

This course examines some of the theoretical approaches that are central to current ethnomusicological research and debates, at the same time providing an overview of the historical development of the discipline. Each week, specific themes will be selected for investigation and discussion, drawing examples from a broad range of case studies. Emphasis will be placed on tracing the theoretical underpinnings of ethnomusicology and, also, on examining how theories and approaches from variety of other disciplines (such as anthropology, folklore studies, sociology, linguistics, literary studies, political science, economics) have been adopted and remodeled within an ethnomusicological context. Students will be encouraged to engage in critical thinking and maintain interpretive openness in respect of a plurality of methodological, epistemological and cultural-philosophical perspectives (functionalism and structuralism, post-structuralism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, performance theory, Marxist approaches, cultural and postcolonial studies, postmodernism and critical theory). Prerequisites

This course is for graduate students only.

Course Requirements

• Attendance and participation: Completing each week’s readings and participating in class discussions. Completing weekly readings before coming to class is an essential requirement for this course, and you may be invited to take turns in leading the discussion on specific readings or topics.

• Class presentations and additional exercises:

1) One class presentation (of about 10 minutes) on an individually assigned reading (generally a book). No thorough, word-by-word reading is required here: you should rather focus on extracting the theoretical perspective, general approach and main arguments of your assigned reading. It is important that you approach your assigned reading critically: try to assess its weaknesses and strengths, its purposes and biases (whether stated or not), and its contribution to the field of Ethnomusicology. Schedule of presentations to be defined in Week 1.

2) Contribution to “mapping Ethnomusicology”: you will be invited to research bibliographic, multimedia or other professional resources, and share your findings in class. DUE in Week 2.

3) Brief class presentations of your submitted written assignments (DUE in Weeks 4, 6, 9).

• Professional organizations paper (POP): an essay critically addressing some aspects of one or more professional organizations, scholarly publication series (journals, monograph series, recording collections) or other institutional initiatives relevant to Ethnomusicology. For instance: comparison between SEM and ICTM; critique of Smithsonian Folkways or Freemuse websites and publications; examination of the treatment of a particular subject in the history of the Yearbook for Traditional Music and/or Ethnomusicology. Length: 1,000 – 1,500 words. DUE in Week 4.

• Review essay: compare two articles of your choice from different periods: one written between 1990 and now, the other written EITHER a) between 1950 to 1970 OR b) between 1970 to 1990. Reviews should be polished, of the kind usually found in academic journals. They should include a brief summary of the reviewed works and a critical evaluation of their contribution to ethnomusicological debates and research. They should also compare the theoretical and methodological approaches of your two sources and assess to what extent their differences and/or similarities relate to broader developments in the discipline. To facilitate comparison, you may want to choose articles that have some sort of relationship, for example articles by the same author, or articles that focus on the same geo-cultural area or on similar topics. Length: 1,500 – 2,000 words. DUE in Week 6.

• Final research paper: a written piece of research that shows your critical engagement with the issues addressed in the course. Your paper may be either theory-based or topic-based:

a) A theory-based paper should focus on one, or more than one, of the theoretical/philosophical/epistemological perspectives and research approaches addressed in the course. You should carry out an in-depth exploration of your chosen theoretical paradigm through relevant scholarly literature, situate it in the context of the history of ethnomusicology, and critically assess its position vis-à-vis other approaches discussed in this course (whether alternative or complementary). You may want to bring case studies into the discussion in order to provide examples of your theoretical paradigm at work and of its achievements and/or shortcomings.

b) A topic-based paper should focus on a specific subject matter (for example: the music of a specific geo-cultural area or community, a music tradition or genre, a general issue of interest to Ethnomusicology such as “Music and politics”, “Music and technology”, etc). You should explore your topic in depth through relevant scholarly literature, discuss how it has been approached differently from different theoretical standpoints (try to reference as many theoretical paradigms as possible from this course), and offer your suggestions/speculations about how your chosen topic may be most profitably studied in future research.

Papers must be based on existing scholarly literature, not on your own fieldwork. You should reference at least 20 scholarly works (books or articles). Length; 4,000 – 5,000. DUE DECEMBER 15.

• Prior to your final research paper, you should submit a research paper proposal (DUE in Week 9), including

a) Provisional title

b) Short abstract (500 words)

c) Written assessment of relevant sources: who are the main authors and what are the main scholarly sources your research must be grounded on? You will need to do some bibliographic research and also check out if there are relevant online resources, forums, discussion lists, professional interest groups, etc.

d) Annotated bibliography of at least 10 of your references, briefly assessing their relevance to the focus of your research paper.

NOTE: Written assignments that do not respect the word limits set above will be downgraded by one full point on the letter grading scale (i.e. from A to A-, from A- to B+, etc). Likewise, unjustified late submissions will be penalized by one full point on the letter grading scale. Please submit your written assignments both in hard copy and electronically (by email).