Unsettled Passage: A US-Mexico Border Symposium on Sonic Encounter

“Unsettled Passage: A US-Mexico Border Symposium on Sonic Encounter” is a two-day event that brings together artists, scholars, and community members to engage with the many forms of sonic encounter afforded by one of the most mediatized borders in contemporary politics: the US-Mexico borderlands. Part of the ongoing Balzan Project entitled “Sonic Borderlands,” this symposium aims to collectively reexamine and reimagine some of the musical functions of borderlands: as sites of silence, precarity, and violence; as regions of mediation, passage, and transformation; and as contact zones of possibility and even hope. Panelists will discuss Indigenous music from Mexico, Afro-Mexican and Black musical movements, South Asian and Middle Eastern encounters with the US-Mexico border, and new musical communities being carved out in Los Angeles, Chicago, Appalachia, and elsewhere. 

 The event will open with a keynote presentation on February 27th at the International House assembly hall, followed by a musical performance by the Sones de México Ensemble at 7:30pm. 

 The presentations, discussions, and second keynote presentation on February 28th will take place at the Franke Institute for the Humanities. 

View the full program

 
Feb 27 (International House, 1414 E. 59th St.) 

5 pm – Introductory remarks 

5:10 pm – Keynote #1, Alex E. Chávez (University of Notre Dame) 

 6:30 pm – Dinner and reception 

 7:30 pm – Performance by Sonés de México Ensemble 

Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact International House in advance of the program at 773-753-2274 or i-house-programs@uchicago.edu.

 
Feb 28 (Franke Institute for the Humanities, 1100 E. 57th St.) 

9:30 am – Registration 

9:45 am – Opening remarks 

10 am-11:30 am – Panel 1: Communities & Belongings 

12 pm – Lunch 

1 pm-2:30 pm – Panel 2: Mediations & Movements 

 3 pm-4:30 pm – Panel 3: Sounds & Solidarities 

 5 pm – Keynote #2, Xochitl C. Chávez (University of California, Riverside) 

 6:30 pm – Closing remarks 

 7 pm – Dinner 

 
Organizers: Philip V. Bohlman and Chris Batterman Cháirez 

Sponsors: Franke Institute for Humanities, Balzan Foundation, Department of Music, Department of Race Diaspora and Indigeneity, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, International House, Ethnoise: Music and Cultures Workshop, Office of Multicultural Student Affairs