HIST-LIT 93AH: Music, Politics, and Protest in the United States

Instructor: Caitlin Schmid
Meeting time: Thursday, 3:00-5:00 pm

In this course, we’ll explore the intersection of music and social movements in the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries. How have composers, performers, and musical artists positioned their music as “political” (and what does that mean)? How have audiences and critics used music in the service of politics? What does a protest sound like, and what can that tell us about particular modes of resistance tied to race, class, gender, and sexuality? Can music be an effective agent of change? From Freedom Songs of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement to the chants of Occupy Wall Street, we’ll consider how music has documented, resisted, dissented, and/or protested in U.S history; how it functions in our present sociopolitical context; and how different genres of music imagine utopian and dystopian futures. Bringing together historical and contemporary texts, archives, and performances, students will have the opportunity to develop original research in a semester-long project towards a substantial academic paper. In the spirit of our subject, we will also work in pairs to produce written and creative work for public audiences that explores what music can do.