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Disability Justice and Techniques of Inclusion in the Ethnomusicology Classroom
Abstract
This paper presents reflections on inclusive teaching methods in ethnomusicology with a focus on representing people with disabilities in coursework and supporting students with disabilities in the classroom. Since its establishment in the mid-twentieth century, Ethnomusicology has sought to recognize, honor, and spread knowledge about the rich diversity of musics around the world. Still, nearly seventy years since the first meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, the need to counter Eurocentric hierarchies of musical supremacy remains a live and critical discussion. Despite its noble goals and ideals, ethnomusicology in practice – both research and teaching – has often imposed and reinforced colonialist paradigms, discrimination, and unequal opportunity. Amidst the Black Lives Matter Movement, Indigenous Peoples Movement, the global Covid Pandemic, and increased attention to ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ in Higher Education, it is, as ever, a good time for ethnomusicologists to re-examine their relationship with social justice. What is education about world musics, cultures, histories, or languages without overt discussions with students about power, difference, and distinction between appropriation and appreciation? Engaging with other scholars re-thinking ‘inclusion’ and Disability Justice – like Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Alice Wong, Sarah Ahmed, and Amy Lee – I reflect on my own experiences as an ethnomusicologist educator and share approaches to accessibility as a technique of inclusion, especially regarding students with disabilities. These approaches range from including disability-related topics in course design and selecting class readings written from the perspectives of scholars with disabilities to considering accessibility of course materials and activities for students with a range of needs. I consider access and disability justice from the standpoint of intersectional forms of oppression. The study of music, culture, and the SWANA region provide a wealth of thematic content relating to diversity and differences, especially in sensory and embodied experience; theory and discourse on hearing, listening, and multisensory engagement; neurodivergent artistic production and experience; movement and mobility in music-making, dance, and theater; chronic illness, mental health, healing traditions, and musical therapies; and the use of music in activism. Social science and humanities classrooms are ideal spaces for centering learning about the experiences of authors, the people they represent, and students. They can also serve as forums for critical discussion of the very issues surrounding ‘inclusion’ vis a vis respecting difference and the distinct identity movements within the Disability community. Finally, recognizing a definition of teaching as care work, I provide some insights from the Covid era.
Discipline
Anthropology
Education
Geographic Area
All Middle East
Sub Area
None