Graduate Courses

• PROFESSOR: James Deaville
• DESCRIPTION: Major intellectual trends relevant to cultural/critical theory and their application to the study of music. Topics include the intersections of music and history, Marxism, sociology, semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminism, gender and queer theory, post-colonial studies, critical race studies and disability studies. Emphasis on processes of decolonization and issues of identity, especially race and gender.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBD
• READINGS: TBD

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• PROFESSOR: Ellen Waterman
• DESCRIPTION: n this course we’ll explore a variety of interdisicplinary qualitative and analytical research methods applicable to music and culture. Topics include: research ethics, ethnographic research, archival research, research in digital and online environments, organizing and analysing data, writing for scholarly publications, conference presentations, and grant applications.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: The course will include a weekly seminar component in addition to offline research assignments (TBD)
• READINGS: Readings will be provided on cuLearn as PDFs.
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• PROFESSOR: Paul Théberge
• DESCRIPTION: Over the past two decades, Sound Studies has become established as an interdisciplinary field of scholarship – a field that encompasses a diverse range of objects of study addressed through an equally diverse range of disciplinary concerns and methodologies.  While music falls within the range of phenomena investigated within sounds studies, music is neither its primary focus nor the termination point of much of the theorizing within the field.  Nevertheless, adopting some of the theoretical perspectives found within sound studies is useful in challenging how we think about music and, conversely, music may allow us to discuss and analyze some of the limits of sound studies as it has come to be defined in recent years.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Class Presentations, participation in discussions, a final paper.
• READINGS: There is no textbook for this course; all readings will be made available on cuLearn.
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• PROFESSOR: Alexis Luko
• DESCRIPTION: This course examines the soundtracks of filmmakers whose work demonstrates a distinctive sonic style: Stanley Kubrick, Jean-Luc Godard, Ingmar Bergman, Wes Anderson, The Coen Brothers, Sophia Coppola, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Haneke, and Andrey Tarkovsky. In our analysis of sonic style, we will take into account music, voice, sound effects and silence.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Small assignments based on readings and weekly film viewing, online participation in discussions, presentations, final paper and final take-home exam.
• READINGS: ames Wierzbicki, editor. Music, Sound and Filmmakers: Sonic Style in Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2012.
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• PROFESSOR: Paul Théberge
• DESCRIPTION: The course is initially framed by a broad understanding of technology as cultural and social practice; issues discussed include technology and its relationship to science, philosophy, objective/subjective knowledge, economy and ideology. The course then turns to a consideration of the inter-related histories of cinema and sound, music and sound carriers, video games and computers. Issues of innovation, representation, textuality, gender, and social networks are discussed in relation to music, sound, image, and digital technologies. Urban and virtual worlds as visual and aural spaces and spaces of consumption, the construction time and space, and the technologization of the body are also considered.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Class Presentations, participation in discussions, a final paper.
• READINGS: There is no textbook for this course; all readings will be made available on cuLearn.
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• PROFESSOR: James K. Wright
• DESCRIPTION: Seminar discussions and readings will examine topics such as the following: Music in early Russian experimental film (Eisenstein, Vertov, Pudovkin, et al); Silent film accompaniment; Music and the British GPO film unit; John Grierson’s conception of the role of music in documentary film; the Music Department of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB); Norman McLaren’s experimental film and sound (NFB); Music in propaganda film; Music in early animated film (1930s-50s); Music and sound in documentary film; the Semiotics of film music (Philip Tagg, et al); Impact of exiled European emigré composers on the Hollywood classic film era; Claudia Gorbman’s Unheard Melodies; Hanns Eisler and Theodor Adorno on film music; Jazz in film; Music/sound in cinéma verité and direct cinema; Pop music in film; Michel Chion on audio-visual media; Music in IMAX film; Original versus compilation film scores; Representation, Othering and Orientalism in film music; Evolution of film music techniques and technologies; Women film composers (e.g., Hildur Gudnadottir’s Oscar-winning score for Joker, 2019); Problem of the temp-track (for film composers); Aesthetic debates concerning functional versus absolute music in film.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Seminar participation and weekly reading responses, research presentation, final research paper.
• READINGS: None required
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• PROFESSOR: Anna Hoefnagels
• DESCRIPTION: This is a seminar course taught by a settler-ally scholar in which students examine historic and contemporary musical expressions by Indigenous peoples in Canada. Issues examined include identity politics, settler-colonialism/decolonization and the arts, Indigenous research methodologies and issues, ownership and sharing protocols, Indigenous activism and politics in Canada, and intercultural and popular musics. Indigenous musicians and culture-bearers will be invited to speak to the class about their practices and experiences.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Engagement and presence in class, weekly reading responses, research assignment, presentation and term paper, final exam.
• READINGS: Readings will be drawn from contemporary sources on Indigenous music as well as materials related to individual cultures and issues in Indigenous Studies more broadly.

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• PROFESSOR: Jesse Stewart
• DESCRIPTION: Through an examination of a variety of primary and secondary materials drawn from such diverse fields as critical pedagogy, human rights discourse, cultural theory, and musicology, this course will explore the varied roles that music has played—and might be able to play—as an agent of positive social change in a variety of contexts. One of the central questions we will explore is how can our work as composers, musicians, scholars, educators, and students participate in the transformation of unjust social relations and unequal distributions of power? This course will offer students innovative opportunities to reflect—and act—on this vital question and forge connections between academic work and broader struggles for social justice.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Evaluation will be based on class participation, presentations, a research essay, and an experiential group project through which students will have an opportunity to explore music’s capacity to act as a vehicle for positive social change.
• READINGS: TBD

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