Academic Labor and Music Curricula

Lucie Vágnerová, Andrés Jacobo García Molina
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

In this paper we parse recent initiatives rethinking music curricula—in particular, those critiquing the enduring centrality of the Western art music canon—in connection to questions of academic labor and service. Many of our interlocutors ask us: “Why are conservative curricula a problem now?” The short answer is that canon-driven music curricula have always been problematic, as reflected by historical initiatives for curricular reform. However, even if the present moment in US music departments is far from unique, it does stand out in particular institutional and disciplinary ways that offer new insights into how curricular design operates and resists change. Specifically, we argue that when it comes to matters of curricular design, students of music would merit from departments thinking differently about structures of labor and academic seniority. As we discuss, contingent faculty have recently become the majority of teaching staff in higher education. Even though this labor force has a much higher representation of minority and women scholars than tenured faculty, their control over curricula is minimal. While many of these scholars channel their desire for change into public-oriented initiatives and other forms of curriculum-adjacent academic service, this work is less valued than research and teaching, and thus contributes to a self-sustaining cycle of exclusion. Intimately entwined with the histories of music disciplines, the canon remains obstinate. In response to calls for reform, it is typically only adjusted by placing similar texts and objects in play (Natvig 2002, xi) or by mobilizing the language of “diversity” to justify and nominally amend a canon-driven curriculum. From our own positions as contingent faculty, we thus argue that the relative invisibility of academic service is a curricular issue in its own Aside from this shifting, increasingly vocal, but still largely disempowered labor force, the current political moment also animates the long and tense relationship between the humanities and social movements. Since at least the presidential campaigns of 2016 that polarized the country on the issue of immigration, if not the Black Lives Matter movement (2013–) that shone a light on the deadly repercussions of systemic racism, there has been increased pressure on academia to recognize its complicity in imperial, colonial, racist, sexist, and classist social formations, as current social movements influence initiatives variously calling for critical teaching, diversity, and decolonization. We propose that music departments recognize the performative properties of curricula, and we suggest entry points to redressing the influence of coloniality and empire that undergird the institutionalization of music.
学术劳动与音乐课程
在本文中,我们分析了最近重新思考音乐课程的倡议-特别是那些批评西方艺术音乐经典持久中心地位的倡议-与学术劳动和服务问题有关。我们的许多对话者问我们:“为什么保守的课程现在是一个问题?”简短的回答是,从课程改革的历史举措中可以看出,以经典为导向的音乐课程一直存在问题。然而,即使美国音乐系目前的情况远非独一无二,但它确实在制度和学科方面脱颖而出,为课程设计如何运作和抵制变化提供了新的见解。具体来说,我们认为,当涉及到课程设计问题时,音乐系的学生应该从不同的角度思考劳动结构和学术资历。正如我们所讨论的,临时教师最近已成为高等教育教学人员的大多数。尽管这一劳动力中少数族裔和女性学者的比例远高于终身教职员工,但她们对课程的控制微乎其微。虽然这些学者中的许多人将他们对变革的渴望转化为面向公众的倡议和其他形式的与课程相关的学术服务,但这种工作不如研究和教学有价值,因此导致了一个自我维持的排斥循环。与音乐学科的历史紧密地交织在一起,经典仍然是顽固的。为了响应改革的呼声,它通常只通过放置类似的文本和对象来进行调整(Natvig 2002, xi),或者通过动员“多样性”的语言来证明和名义上修改由教规驱动的课程。因此,从我们作为临时教师的立场出发,我们认为,学术服务的相对不可见性本身就是一个课程问题。除了这种不断变化、声音越来越大、但在很大程度上仍被剥夺权力的劳动力之外,当前的政治时刻也激发了人文学科与社会运动之间长期而紧张的关系。至少从2016年总统大选导致美国在移民问题上两极分化开始,如果不是黑人的命也是命运动(Black Lives Matter movement, 2013 -)揭示了系统性种族主义的致命影响,那么学术界就面临越来越大的压力,要求承认它在帝国主义、殖民主义、种族主义、性别歧视和阶级主义社会形态中的共谋,因为当前的社会运动影响着各种呼吁批判性教学、多样性和非殖民化的倡议。我们建议音乐系认识到课程的表演属性,我们建议解决殖民和帝国的影响,巩固音乐制度化的切入点。
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