Ethnicize and Historicize: Thoughts on Anti-Racist Pedagogy and Post-Secondary Music History

Abstract

The “unmarked whiteness” at the core of most Canadian and US university music programs is an example of racist policy. Anti-racist actions that identify, describe, and dismantle racism can be productively applied to music history courses by adopting strategies outlined in the work of Kyoko Kishimoto. By exploring knowledge production through the historiography of canonic music, challenging Eurocentrism by teaching Western music as “ethnic,” and dismantling the division of white and non-white musics into different disciplines, this article offers an approach to musicultural anti-racism.