Fall 2024 Course Offerings

MUS 671: Decolonizing Music
M 3:00-5:50 PM Room: 215 Frohnmayer Music Building

Keep calm and decolonize everything
Found on various websites. Artist unknown.

“Decolonizing music” begins with understanding how the major age of European colonialism (1492-mid 20th century) affected and continues to influence the way we think about music. During this period, certain ideas about what music is and how music works were repressed in the name of the modernity and progress. The result is financial and social inequity between different types of music practitioners and consumers. Particularly vulnerable are musicians and listeners from colonized peoples. What might happen if we were to recuperate some of these previously repressed ideas? What can we do to create a more just and equitable world for music cultures? This seminar is open to graduate students in all disciplines. MUS 451/551 recommended but not required.


All reading and listening materials will be made available through the Canvas course site.


Published by

Juan Eduardo Wolf

Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, UO School of Music and Dance; Core Faculty, Folklore Studies Program; Coordinator, World Music Series; http://music.uoregon.edu/people/faculty/jewolf; https://www.facebook.com/worldmusicseries; Ethnography: Styling Blackness in Chile (IU Press)

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