Fitting with this month’s celebration of Women’s History, Professor Deborah Wong from the University of California, Riverside will deliver the 2018 Genevieve Lee ’96 Memorial Lecture with a presentation on the way Asian American women use the arts to promote social change. The Lee Lecture is an annual endowed lecture that supports the development of multi-disciplinary Asian American studies. This year’s lecture is sponsored through the Asian Studies Program and Department of Music and Dance at Swarthmore College. Titled “Women of Color Creating Change: Taiko, FandangObon, and Asian American Arts Activism,” Professor Wong’s lecture will explore two case studies of the arts as a form of social change. The first case study looks at taiko and the role of gender within the taiko community among a diverse group of women. The second examines FandangObon, a festival based in L.A. that brings together Japanese, Mexican, and African American communities for a celebration of dance, music and environmental consciousness.

As a Professor of Music and an ethnomusicologist who specializes in Asian American and Thai music, Professor Deborah Wong has defined her academic career by working with diverse groups of people in order to seek out and promote interethnic collaborations. ‘Inter’ and ‘diversity’ are key words to Professor Wong’s research and are reflected in the works she has published. Speak it Louder: Asian Americans Making Music for example, a book that Professor Wong published in 2004, tracks the multitude of musical genres Asian Americans have contributed to. From traditional Asian, to jazz, pop, and classical, her work looks at how Asian Americans have created and participated in a diverse array of music traditions.

Lesia Liao ’18 read Speak It Louder to learn more about the field of ethnomusicology for an independent research project with Professor Lei Ouyang Bryant of the Swarthmore Department of Music & Dance. Liao has been working to create an annotated bibliography for Asian Americans involved in music to investigate what Asian American music is and how we might define it. Liao notes that “ethnomusicology…is especially interesting because it takes music as a site of identity formation and one[‘]s grappling with experiences.”

Professor Wong’s lecture will discuss just how to address that relationship between music and identity formation, particularly among Asian American women. Liao voiced her excitement for learning how Professor Wong balances community engagement with ethnographic research, and related the relevance and importance of this lecture, stating that “this talk will be relevant and engaging with people of color, activists who seek different ways to engage in the movement such as through the arts, Asian Americans, and anyone with an interest in the Asian-American experience, anthropology, or music.”

Among her many accomplishments, Professor Wong has also served as the President of the Society for Ethnomusicology, an editor for Wesleyan University Press’s Music/Culture series, a research member for the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, Chair of the Advisory Council for the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and a project manager for the Great Leap Online Archive.

Professor Lei Ouyang Bryant has long been impressed with Professor Wong’s involvement in ethnomusicology and the public sector, and has been the one to suggest bringing Professor Wong to campus as the Genevieve Lee ’96 lecturer:

“I have had the great pleasure of getting to know her through our shared interest in Taiko communities and her leadership for the Society for Ethnomusicology. I believe that Professor Wong’s commitment to Asian American communities and public sector work are both important connections to the interests of students at Swarthmore.”

As an activist, academic, and ethnomusicologist, Professor Wong’s lecture will prove to be an engaging and insightful discussion on Asian American women’s involvement in the arts and social activism.

This event is free and open to the public. The lecture will take place on Monday, April 2 at 4:30 PM in the Scheuer Room in Kohlberg.

Marion Kudla ’19