May 22, 2020 | 4:30PM
Online
"Lifted Up from the Earth at the Very Moment of Death": the Border, the Wall, and the Transcendent Topography of Migration Crisis
A panel discussion with Professor Philip V. Bohlman and graduate students Tomal Hossain, Rina Sugawara, and Benjamin Wong
Professor Philip Bohlman will participate in a livestream Q&A about his keynote address at the 2020 SMI/ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference, hosted by the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. Professor Bohlman's full talk can be viewed in advance of the Q&A on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujo9I2cOE4A
Throughout history walls have been built along borders to block the paths of migrants fleeing violence and poverty, and to divert and silence the transnational circulation of music. The conflict between walls and migration has generated the shifting soundscapes of what Bohlman calls an aesthetic topography represented by the contradictory conditions of sound and silence. The music historical path he traces through his talk begins with the metaphors of walls in Irish literature and moves across medieval ballads and the materiality of ghetto walls. The forced migration of European Jews represents a leitmotif throughout the talk, from the exile that followed expulsion from Mediterranean lands in early modern Europe to the musical chronicle of flight and death in the Holocaust. Specific genres of song – ballads in oral and written tradition, corridos, ghetto music, the songs of pilgrimage, music from concentration camps – converge in the voices of a historical counterpoint providing critical new perspectives on the migration crisis of our own day.
About "Music Revealed: A Public Humanities Lecture Series"
The University of Chicago Department of Music is excited to announce the launch of a streaming humanities lecture series titled Music Revealed, bringing captivating insights in music straight to your home. With multimedia presentations delivered via Facebook Live, University of Chicago Music faculty will peel back the layers on the history, theory, and anthropology of music, sharing their research and answering your questions.
Join us for the first lecture featuring Assistant Professor of Music Jennifer Iverson on Friday, May 8 at 4:30 pm CDT. Professor Martha Feldman will present on May 15, and Professor Philip V. Bohlman takes the virtual stage on May 22.