Afro-Caribbean Music Research Project

Dates (tentative): May 11, 2009 - June 15, 2009

Group Leader(s): Prof. Leonard Brown (l.brown@neu.edu) and Prof. Emmett Price (e.price@neu.edu)

Course Description: The Afro-Caribbean Music Research Project, an initiative of the Department of African American Studies, is a five week faculty-led program offering students the opportunity to experience and study Afro-Caribbean Music and Culture. The site for the Summer 2010 will be the islands of Trinidad & Tobago. Students will learn and apply appropriate field research principles and practices in conducting field work. Students will focus attention towards the African retentions within traditional music forms as well as contemporary and current musical traditions. Students will have sessions on the history and legacy of music on the islands of Trinidad & Tobago, the importance of linguistics in understanding messages within the music studied as well as the impact of trans-Atlantic slavery on the musical idioms and genres that derive from the Caribbean. The experience will include lecturers by leading scholars, musicians and experts from the Caribbean. Students will also have "dialogues" with area musicians, professionals and inhabitants of Trinidad & Tobago. Tours of historic sites, museums and important musical venues will be scheduled through out the trip.

At the end of the program students will compile their oral histories, video recordings and other field research, leaving a complete set of the recordings at a major research repository on the islands as well as depositing a complete set in the Afro-Caribbean Music Research Project Collection in the Snell Library.

Course Credits:

Prerequisites: This program is open to any students who are sophomores and above. Students should have a minimum 2.2 GPA. Students with an interest in ethnomusicology (the study of music and culture) and/ or majoring in African American Studies, Latina/o and Latin American Studies, Communications Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, History, Cultural Studies, Music and Modern Languages are of interest.

Cost of Program: Summer tuition for 8 NU credits plus additional costs TBD.

Application Process: Download the dialogue of civilizations application and waiver form. Turn in two copies of each completed form and two copies of your unofficial transcript to the Office of International Study Programs in 10 BV.

Application Deadline: December 1, 2009

For more information: Contact Prof. Leonard Brown (l.brown@neu.edu) or Prof. Emmett Price (e.price@neu.edu)

Disclaimer: Some information posted here is tentative and subject to change based on costs and dates of available flights. The website is updated as current information becomes available.