AP/ANTH 4140 3.00 Anthropological Perspectives on Sound

This course explores the merging of sound studies and anthropology, with a focus on how social actors understand their environments through sound. We will consider how anthropologists frame their work through sound, in an effort to further understand how anthropology may contribute to knowledge about sonic ecologies, and how anthropological methods allow for unique perspectives to emerge within sound studies scholarship.

Thinking about sonic ecologies as field sites for ethnographic study, students will explore sound in relation to both urban and natural environments. As sound includes music, this course also engages with the disciplines of musicology and ethnomusicology in order to contextualize how sound and music have been positioned in sensory hierarchies. In this course, students will have the opportunity to engage and experiment with sound, and to get creative with writing about sound and/or use sound to express academic discourse. Musical training is not required to take this course.

Course Director (Winter 2025): J. Fulton-Melanson - fultonjs@yorku.ca