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What does it mean to approach a field of study from a global context? What questions, methods, sources, and frames of study does it entail? How might thinking more globally change the way that we approach music and music's histories? This course is an introduction to ethnomusicology as a field of study that has concerned itself with developing tools for thinking through and from a global context. In this course we will use ethnomusicological tools to critically assess our own understandings of what constitutes the study of music, of history, and of music history. In each unit, we examine the questions that have been asked and methods that have been used by scholars writing in vastly different time periods and about different areas of the world. We also learn by doing. Students will apply ethnomusicological insights to their own lives through course assignments, including short critical reflections on the music we encounter, and journal entries. Journal reflections will form the basis for a final project, developed in consultation with the instructor, which may range from ethnography based on participant-observation, to creative performance and reflection.