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The hegemony and identity discussion group (Dana Baitz, Charity Marsh, Marcia Ostashewski and Heather Sparling) engaged in a dialogue using as their starting point the introduction to Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity (1994). In this piece and throughout her pedagogical work, Bev invites us to think about what it means to be ethnomusicologists who are inherently human. What of ourselves do we bring to our research? How do we negotiate our racialized, gendered and class-based selves as we approach this work? What does it mean to be part of an academic tradition that is symbolically attributed significant social power? What does it mean to work within the geo-political entity known as Canada? The group invites readers to continue with the ideas raised here or lead us into new discussions surrounding issues of music, hegemony and identity.
Read the full discussion here and then return to this blog post to leave your comments.
June 1st, 2011 at 15:33
Thanks to all the contributors for your really interesting contributions. Heather, I’d like to thank you for questioning the politics of what we teach, of how our teaching marginalizes, whom it empowers, and so on. It’s a great reminder that as teachers we have a tremendous responsibility to problematize our syllabi long before we ever enter the first class. Sometimes after teaching a course for a few years we can become complacent about it, so this is a reminder to always question my motivations and where I might be teaching and responding from my own comfort zones.