Welcome.

This blog is a companion to our "Race,Writing, Sound" graduate course, being offered at the University of Pittsburgh in Spring 2016 by Dr. Imani D. Owens. We will draw upon a wide variety of literary and sonic sources to ask questions about race and the politics of listening in the 20th century.  Pairing recent works in critical sound studies with poetry, fiction, liner notes and sonic texts, we will consider writing, sound, and performance as interfacing mediums, not merely defined by influence but by mutual aesthetic and conceptual transformation. Our lens is decidedly transnational: we chart the ways that music travels, buoyed by historical events, social movements, and developments in sound technology.  We will consider literary engagement with genres such as blues, jazz, spirituals, soul, hip hop, reggae, dub, afro-Cuban, and West African music. Theories of translation, improvisation, and black Atlantic exchange will inform our analysis of race, writing, and sound.

This blog will serve as a space to post our reflections on the assigned readings--or to sound off on any matters related to the themes above. Looking forward to the journey.