Welcome to The Planet Sings, a blog to accompany an Honors Second-Year Seminar of the same title that I will be offering as a cultural geography course at Bridgewater State University on an occasional basis, beginning in the Fall 2024 semester.
Blogging seems the perfect format to capture many of the audio, video, and narrative resources that will be part of this course, and to share them with a wider public who may be interested in learning more about this planet through their music.
I began my academic life as an environmental geographer, concerned (as I still am) about the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, particularly in Brazil. During my first visit to Brazil in 1996, the people who helped me with my research also helped me to discover that I could learn a lot about the country through its many forms of music.
A decade after that first encounter, I found myself sharing the music of Latin America during visits to college campuses all over Massachusetts as a MaCIE Lecturer throughout 2006 and 2007. I still have a wheeled suitcase I bought for the purpose, as I played short clips from CDs as part of each presentation. Around that time, music became part. of every class I teach.
This led to my department agreeing that it is time to offer an entire course centered on music as means to exploring global geographies, especially the geography of the Global South. I shared the idea with my librarian spouse -- who has often helped me with titles for classes and projects -- and thus The Planet Sings was born. The title is inspired by The Planet Sings, a global collection of lullabies.
No comments:
Post a Comment