Based on 2 ½ years of singing and playing with Navajo county western bands, her book, The Sound of Navajo Country: Music, Language and Diné Belonging (forthcoming March 13th, 2017, University of North Carolina Press), examines cultural intimacy and generational nostalgia on the Navajo (Diné) Nation (click here for brief interviews in English and Italian about her research). This book is the first in a series, Critical Indigeneities, edited by J. Kēhaulani Kauanui and Jean M. O’Brien and focusing on contemporary indigenous experience and critical theory. Her research interests include: music and language, anthropology of the voice, politics of authenticity, indigeneity and belonging, music of Native North America, Sardinia and the Appalachian mountains, race and musical genre, music as cultural performance, indigenous language revitalization and U.S. working class expressive cultures. Together with Kerry F. Thompson (Diné), she has a forthcoming article on the recent Navajo Nation presidential election and language fluency debate, titled “The Right to Lead: Language, Iconicity Diné Presidential Politics. Recent articles include “Radmilla’s Voice: Music Genre, Blood Quantum and Belonging on the Navajo Nation” (Cultural Anthropology, 2014) and “Rita(hhh): Placemaking and Country Music on the Navajo Nation” (Ethnomusicology, 2009).
Kristina Jacobsen holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University, the MPhil in Ethnomusicology from Columbia University, a Master’s in Ethnomusicology from Arizona State University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music (flute performance) and History (concentration: Native North America).
Music, Power, and Signification: A Phenomenological Reading of Race in New Spain
In New Spain, an institutional structure of merit and promotion hinged on the idea of reason as an intrinsically European attribute. This attribute differentiated ‘Europeans’ from people of mixed race claiming European status based on their skin complexion.
“Reclaiming ‘the Border’ in Texas-Mexican Conjunto Heritage and Cultural Memory”
The Texas border town of San Benito is the subject of this talk which examines how memory and legacy operate within a community of “self-appointed” cultural brokers and a local municipality inspired by capitalist notions of urban development, economic growth and cultural tourism.
Sones de allá para acá: Son Jarocho from Mexico to USA
Son Jarocho is a genre of traditional Mexican music performed in southern Veracruz that has gained prominence in Chicanx communities in the United States. In this talk we will analyze the origins, rhythms, musical forms, and dances both in Mexico and the United States.