On Thursday, October 25, ethnomusicologist Victoria Levine will come to Swarthmore\u2019s campus to present a lecture titled \u201cEverything You Know About Indian Music is Wrong.\u201d Levine is a professor of music at Colorado College, located on traditional lands of Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho people. She focuses her research on music in Indigenous ceremonial life, musical revitalization, historical ethnomusicology, and the circulation of music along trade routes.<\/p>\n
Professor Levine\u2019s provocative title originates from Paul Chaat Smith\u2019s book of the same name. In this lecture, Professor Levine intends to answer four questions: How did modernity affect Native music? Do Native musicians have music theory? Can Native women make music? What is the history of Native music?<\/p>\n
In order to tackle these four questions, Professor Levine draws upon the work of Native and settler scholars as well as her own research. She poses these four critical questions as an opening to begin challenging herself as an ethnomusicologist of settler descent and to challenge audience assumptions about Indigenous music and musicians.<\/p>\n
\u201cProfessor Levine obliges us to think about music in unusual (and sometimes, perhaps, uncomfortable) ways,\u201d Swarthmore Music Professor Tom Whitman said. \u00a0\u201cI expect that her audience will be stimulated by her ideas to reflect in new ways on music and the arts in relation to culture and their own lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Levine\u2019s lecture is the annual Peter Gram Swing (PGS) Lecture, an event established in the honor of the founder of Swarthmore\u2019s Music Department. The idea to invite Professor Levine as part of this annual event was first proposed by Swarthmore Music Professor Lei Ouyang Bryant, who saw an opportunity to bring a scholar of Native American music and culture to Swarthmore since there are no current specialists present on campus. Other members of the Music Faculty were immediately enthusiastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI first met Professor Levine when she interviewed me for a faculty position at Colorado College in the early 1990’s,\u201d Professor Whitman said. \u201cShe impressed me very much at that time, and I have followed her work from a distance over the intervening years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI’d also like to single out the advocacy of a current Swarthmore student, Julia Wakeford, who had met Professor Levine, knew her work, and encouraged us to invite her, without knowing that we were already thinking along the same lines,\u201d Professor Whitman continued.<\/p>\n
Though Professor Levine\u2019s lecture is not a part of any Swarthmore class semester, Professor Bryant tries to incorporate related events into her own course.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to incorporate related campus events in my \u2018Music and Dance Cultures of the World\u2019 course, so my students will be attending the lecture and writing a short response for our class,\u201d Professor Bryant said.<\/p>\n
This lecture is an opportunity to address topics that are not covered currently in any Swarthmore music classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to bring speakers who can address topics that are not otherwise covered in our curriculum,\u201d Professor Whitman said. \u201cThrough almost 30 years of PGS speakers on many different topics, I don’t believe we have ever previously hosted a specialist in the musics of indigenous peoples, so this seemed an auspicious opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, this event provides space for a group who has been historically underrepresented.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am excited to have Native musicians and music centered in this year\u2019s PGS lecture,\u201d Professor Bryant said. \u201cFirst, I hope that the audience will learn more about Native American musicians, music, and music making. Second, I hope we can all think about the stereotypes and assumptions that have been, and continue to be, circulating in mainstream popular US culture and K-12 education.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe Professor Levine\u2019s lecture will provide an opportunity to both challenge and extend one\u2019s current knowledge and awareness,\u201d Professor Bryant added.<\/p>\n
Professor Levine\u2019s lecture will be located in the Lang Concert Hall and will occur on Thursday, October 25 at 4:30pm.<\/p>\n
\n
David Chan ’19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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