Field Methods in Ethnomusicology: Music and Islam in West Philadelphia

This graduate/undergraduate seminar is part of a series of Academically Based Community Service classes that examine the relationship between music and spirituality in West Philadelphia. The 2008 version is the second iteration of the Field Methods seminar that has a focus on the Islamic community. Previous classes have had the history and contemporary practice of gospel music as their subject.

The purpose of the course is to give you a condensed version of the field research experience as required for doctoral dissertations in ethnomusicology or the anthropology of music. We begin by doing the kinds of reading a student might undertake prior to taking special field examinations; we speak to community members to establish the parameters of the research--expectations, norms, values, limitations-- and then proceed to do the field research in a collaborative, partnership-building and increasingly mentoring manner. Each week you are given both required and recommended (for your interest) reading, both technical and theoretical that should be reflected on in journals and in the seminar environment. The larger goal of these seminars is for you to learn how to use editing software and to workshop particular projects, thick description, fieldnotes, photographic essays, recorded interviews, the recording of a musical event, and videography all in the context of the Quba Institute services, classes, and related events.