I teach courses in ethnomusicology and interdisciplinary music studies.
Please see course descriptions below (syllabi available upon request):
Popular Music in the Middle East
advanced undergraduate seminar
In this research-based course, students will develop listening and analytical skills specific to music in Turkey, Iran, and Arab-majority societies. We will listen to indie rock, hip-hop, mahraganat, Arab pop, techno-dabke, and other popular styles. Topics include the role of radio technology in the Egyptian music industry; the relationship between music and nationalism; how class and gender inform musical performance; and the pleasures and politics of partying. Students will develop individual research topics related to the course (e.g., focusing on a song or artist), with the course culminating in a final research paper. No previous musical experience required.
Collaborative Research in Music Studies (“Ethnographic Methods”)
intermediate undergraduate course
Where is music found? What can we learn about musical practices beyond the score and recording? This course introduces students to hands-on, ethnographic approaches to the study of music. We will consider the ethical, legal, interpersonal, and philosophical challenges of writing about the musical lives of others — and ourselves. Throughout the course, we will work together to design and carry out ethnographic research projects. Previous coursework in music is helpful, but not required.
Ethnomusicology and the World’s Music
introductory undergraduate course
This course introduces the discipline of ethnomusicology and its history, theory, methods, and contemporary critiques. Centering the social and cultural analysis of music, the course explores case studies of global popular, vernacular, and classical musics. We will expand our skills as listeners while also considering key issues, such as the “world music” market; ethnographic methods; gesture, dance, and embodiment; copyright and repatriation; the role of media forms and AI technologies; and the politics of representation. No musical experience necessary.
Music and Humanitarianism
advanced seminar (undergraduate or graduate)
Can music be a form of international aid? How do humanitarian interventions inform musical encounters? This course approaches these questions by considering the ethical and political ambivalence of humanitarian projects in global perspective. As we will explore, musicians navigate this ambivalence when performing in televised fundraisers and music festivals, alongside international NGO programs, and throughout their own experiences of displacement. We will study musical recordings, film, and critical readings in order to discover how music offers multi-sensory perspectives for engaging with the anthropology of humanitarianism and Critical Refugee Studies.
Music and Digital Media
introductory undergraduate course (fulfills campus writing requirement)
This course examines the relationship between music and primarily digital media forms in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will consider the significance of radio, music videos, mp3s, video games, and streaming services like Spotify for social and musical life. Course readings engage with a broad range of themes, such as performance, fan culture, copyright, capitalism, surveillance, and climate change. Together we will develop an understanding of how media technologies inform music consumption and production — and how we relate to music in our daily lives. While this course primarily focuses on North America, we will also study examples from across Asia and North Africa. No prior knowledge of music is required to take this course.
Music in Displacement
advanced undergraduate course
What does displacement sound like? How do experiences of displacement inform the work of musicians and listeners? To what extent can music offer another kind of “home” in times of uncertainty? This course will introduce students to critical issues in music and migration, particularly in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. We examine how “displacement” unsettles conventional understandings of the relationship between sound and place, and gives rise to complex listening practices. This course will include a particular focus on the movements and musical practices of Syrian and Arab refugees since 2011. We foreground the perspectives and lived experiences of refugees in order to better understand war, empire, militarism, colonization, humanitarianism, human rights, and coping with trauma. Throughout the session, we further explore how this approach can transform our broader understanding of how music is created, performed, and experienced in conditions of displacement. We will study film, musical repertoire, soundscape recordings, podcasts, and academic literature in order to discover how expressive cultural practices offer unique, multi-sensory approaches to engaging with migration and refugee studies.
While this course centers on forced migration within and from the Middle East, we will further draw from material concerning Southeast and Central Asia, East and West Africa, the Caribbean, and the U.S.-Mexico border.