MUS 259 - Afro-Asian Musical Engagements

The focus of this course will be the wide-ranging collaborations, borrowings, and cross-ethnic imaginaries of Black and Asian and Asian American musicians. Drawing on a body of interdisciplinary literature on jazz, hip-hop, K-Pop, and other popular styles, students will study how scholars have theorized the intentional engagements through which performers have employed musical sound to form and perform interracial rapport, pursue politically-motivated solidarity, and embody racial identities modeled on concepts of Blackness and Asianness. Thinking beyond white/non-white binaries, a central question will be: How might Afro-Asian musical projects reshape how we think about racial categories and the social processes through which race is dialectically constructed and deconstructed?

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Cross-listing(s): CRES 259
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a non-English language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a non-English language, or works of the visual or performing arts).