Ethnomusicology of Indigenous Modernities

This interdisciplinary research project studies contemporary Indigenous aesthetic expressions in theatre, multimedia (film, music videos, and internet expressions) and music with attention to transnational and Indigenous networks and issues in today’s complex, globalizing world. It analyzes theater and music of Sámi living across national borders of Norway, Sweden, Russia and Finland; Native North American theatre incorporating music, dance and film, conducted in collaboration by members of different indigenous nations; as well as performances of indigeneity in music and dance of the Sherpa and Gurung people of Nepal.
The project investigates applications of music that negotiate concrete social issues involving topics such as colonial and postcolonial realities, cultural and environmental sustainability, and questions of cultural and intangible heritage. The study recognizes diverse alliances and constructions of indigeneity while examining the changing understandings and positions of "nations" and supranational networks in aesthetic expressions. It is hypothesized, for instance, that networks relevant to these issues may appear not only as emblems of ethnicity or belongingness represented in aesthetics, but also may be things that set specific material constraints, are resisted, or are actively created or reinforced through performance. It is important that the music, theatre and multimedia expressions, which will be subjects of close analytical readings and listenings, be carefully localized.
Special attention also will be paid to different configurations and changing relationships of the postmodern and modern in local settings involving apposite politics. Again, it is hypothesized that contemporary aesthetic expressions of Indigenous people intended for intercultural and/or inter-indigenous audiences and which, through the global marketplace, connect with globalization and commercialism, move between modernity and postmodern aesthetics, creating social, cultural and economic tensions and possibilities.