Transforming Ethnomusicology Volume I

For decades, ethnomusicologists across the world have considered how to affect positive change for the communities they work with. Through illuminating case studies and reflections by a diverse array of scholars and practitioners, Transforming Ethnomusicology aims to both expand dialogues about social engagement within ethnomusicology and, at the same time, transform how we understand ethnomusicology as a discipline. The first volume of Transforming Ethnomusicology focuses on ethical practice and collaboration, examining the power relations inherent in ethnography and offering new strategies for transforming institutions and ethnographic methods. These reflections on the broader framework of ethnomusicological practice are complemented by case studies that document activist approaches to the study of music in challenging contexts of poverty, discrimination, and other unjust systems.

Beverley Diamond is Professor Emerita at Memorial University of Newfoundland where she served as the first Canada Research Chair in Ethnomusicology and founded and directed the Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media, and Place (MMaP) from 2003-15. Diamond is known for her feminist music research and her work on Canadian cultural historiography and Indigenous music cultures in North America and Scandinavia. Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco is Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal, where she founded and directs the Ethnomusicology Institute - Center for the Study of Music and Dance (INET-md). Her publications focus on cultural politics, musical nationalism, identity, music media, modernity, heritagization, and music and conflict in Portugal, Egypt, and Oman.

Ethnomusicological Praxis: An Introduction Beverley Diamond and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco Chapter 1: Changing Praxis and Ethical Practice: Lessons for Ethnomusicology from Applied Anthropology Tony Seeger Chapter 2: International Council for Traditional Music and Society for Ethnomusicology: A Reflection through Two Complementary Lenses Svanibor Pettan Chapter 3: Collaborative Ethnography: Trends, Developments, and Opportunities Luke Eric Lassiter Chapter 4: Sincerely Outspoken: Towards a Critical Activist Ethnomusicology David A. McDonald Chapter 5: "How Is that Going to Help Anyone?" A Critical Activist Ethnomusicology Oliver Y. Shao Chapter 6: Praxis through Honk: The Rise of Politically Active Street Brass Bands in the United States Becky Liebman Chapter 7: Zafé Fatra (The Affair of Trash) and the Affair of Scholarly Engagement: Can Music (and Music Scholarship) Really Clean Up the Streets of Port-au-Prince? Rebecca Dirksen Chapter 8: Engaged Activist Research: Dialogical Interventions Towards Revitalizing the Chinese Glove Puppet Theatre in Penang Tan Sooi Beng Chapter 9: On Not Knowing: Academically Based Community Service, Faith Based Organizations, and the Transformation of Ethnomusicological Praxis Carol Muller and Nina Öhman Chapter 10: Performing Transitional Justice: Song, Truth-telling and Memory in South Sudan Angela Impey Chapter 11: Witnessing: A Methodology Deborah Wong