On February 27 and 28, 2025, join us for the second symposium of Professor Philip V. Bohlman's International Balzan Prize for Ethnomusicology project (2023–28) entitled “Unsettled Passage: A US-Mexico Border Symposium on Sonic Encounter.”
The symposium 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 7:30 pm.
The presentations, discussions, and second keynote presentation on February 28th will take place at the Franke Institute for the Humanities.
Unsettled Passage: A US-Mexico Border Symposium on Sonic Encounter
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