Colloquium: 'Central Asian Women Making Music in Turbulent Times'

August 29, 2019

University Relations

Tanya Merchant will give a talk entitled, "Sounds of Regime Change: Central Asian Women Making Music in Turbulent Times," Tuesday, Sept. 3, from 1-2 p.m. in the Davis Concert Hall. Merchant is an associate professor of ethnomusicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

In the age of recorded sound (1877-), Central Asia has seen tsarist rule, the Bolshevik Revolution, more than 70 years within the Soviet Union, and almost 30 years of independence. Women’s musical practices in Uzbekistan have changed along with the country's various regimes, and their musical culture reflects the political and cultural realities of a nation that features much state-sponsored music with little space for opposition. Based on fieldwork with Uzbek women musicians from 2002 to 2014, this talk elucidates women’s vital role in the creation of a national sense of musical tradition. Musical recordings from throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, in dialogue with oral histories, allow consideration of how changes in national narratives are negotiated and performed by those who occupy space on the public stage.

This event, co-sponsored by the Music and Anthropology departments, is free and open to the public. For more information email Erin Pike at elpikey@alaska.edu.

Download a flyer here (PDF).