3.0

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What is ethnomusicology? What do ethnomusicologists do? What do they study? What questions do they ask, and how do they go about answering them? In this course, we explore how ethnomusicologists have made sense of music and sound. We will trace the intellectual history and contours of the field of ethnomusicology by exploring the questions that ethnomusicologists ask and the methods they employ in their attempts to answer them. Crucially, we will learn by doing. Students will apply ethnomusicological insights to their own lives through course assignments, including short critical reflections on the music and ideas 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.