Dr. Kristina Jacobsen, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology, was recently awarded the Fulbright Con Il Sud Award for Teaching and Research to support her upcoming research during her sabbatical on the Italian Island of Sardinia [Sardigna]. As a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Jacobsen will be doing fieldwork for a new book project focusing on country music in Sardinia, titled “Sing Me Back Home: Songwriting, Language Reclamation and Italian Colonialism in Sardinia.” She will also be writing songs and recording a new Americana album of cowrites with Sardinian songwriters to accompany this book, presenting her research at Universities on the Italian continent, and teaching a class at the University of Cágliari in Sardinia.
The Cruelty of Jazz: Toward a Hemispheric Politics of Sound
Rooted in concepts of affect and Empire, this paper argues that jazz operated in various 20th century Latin American settings as a vital touchstone bearing the risks and benefits of urban modernization, hemispheric geopolitics, and transnational cultural production, “cruelly” echoing the United States’ cultural, political, and economic dominance in the hemisphere and beyond.
Music from the Americas presents Versus 8
Percussion music in the Americas is one of the most exotic, visually attractive, and antique forms of expression since pre-hispanic times. Preserving, promoting and creating music for the percussion family of instruments is at the core of Versus 8’s mission through international collaboration with composers, performers, students, and cultural centers that contribute with their resources to the cycle of music, namely: creation, performance, and listening..
A Day in the Life of the Bosavi People
A 90 minute, 4K, 7.1 surround sound eco-rockumentary concert of a day in the life of the Bosavi people and their rainforest home in Papua New Guinea, directed and produced by Steven Feld and based on recordings and images from 1976-2018.