This course explores music and cultural belonging in the contemporary American Southwest, and the many interweaving forms of music-making across the region. We will examine how tapestries of ethnicity and cultural identity are crafted, reflected, negotiated, and altered through musical, artistic, and culinary expression. Our investigation will consider processes of settler-colonialism that have contributed to waves of migration across the region, and the forms of musical practice that have emerged from, and shaped, these processes. We will focus on various genres that comprise the musical fabric of the region, including modern Latin pop, Pueblo music, Mariachi, Hispanic folk music, Chicano Rock, Navajo country, Ranchera, Norteño, Flamenco, Tejano, and Indigenous rock. The “heart” of our course is centered in an 8-day field trip experience in northern New Mexico, where we will experience hands-on creative and musical-performance workshops with acclaimed regional artists. In the process, we will create meaningful musical-ethnographic projects based on our encounters in the field, engaging and amplifying regional BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ scholars and musicians, in ways that help build community-based connections across the region. (Not offered 2025-26).

1 unit

No offerings are currently scheduled.