Postcolonial Ethnomusicology

by Javier Silvestrini

IVE’s research focus on Postcolonial Ethnomusicology critically analyzes the historical legacies of colonialism and imperialism as well as their continuity in the multiple forms of neocolonialisms and other forms of hegemonies from the disciplinary perspective of ethnomusicology. Postcolonial approaches also permeate other research focus areas of the Institute, such as transculturality, migration, and research on refugees and minorities, since they all share the approach of reflecting hegemonic power relations with respect to the complexities of musics. Here music often becomes a form of resistance, of political empowerment, or affirmation of cultural identity. Through the responsible ethics of research, dialogical knowledge production and applied ethnomusicology, the IVE conducts research, using principles of social reasonability for the benefit of the communities, research partners, and research collaborators as a priority of its academic practice.

As a process, the disciplinary discussions about the responsibilities of dealing with the colonial past has fruitfully led to the broadening of perspectives about notions of music from an institutional point of view, by providing critical questioning of the practices and reproduction of hegemonic notions of music in education and the hierarchies between non-western classical music and traditional musics. Research in the field of Postcolonial Ethnomusicology also implies practicing epistemological decolonization, particularly in the area of teaching at the department, which aims to establish means of transcultural communication, as a way to provide an exchange of experiences and meanings. As a driving force of Transculturality_mdw, the IVE contributed to the fostering of postcolonial discourses at the university. The department has closely collaborated with researchers from Latin America as part of the project The Meeting of Knowledges. This plan of action developed by Brazilian anthropologist José Jorge de Carvalho calls to incorporate non-academic masters or tradition-bearers as faculty or teachers into University programs as an alternative to decolonize curricula in Brazil. As of 2020, the IVE is working on establishing a new Erasmus+ collaboration with the University of Brasilia, as part of the project The Meeting of Knowledges.