Thursday, March 17, 2016, 4-5:30pm
Liu Institute’s Boardroom (3rd floor)
Please join us for the next meeting of the Latin America and the Global research group, where we will discuss an excerpt from Alejandra Bronfman’s new book Isles of Noise: Sonic Media in the Caribbean, which is currently in press and scheduled for publication this fall.
My book project records the unwritten histories of radio and related sonic technologies in the early twentieth century. It rewrites Caribbean history to stress the centrality of sound, media and listening publics, rather than texts, ideologies and reading publics in the unfolding politics of the era. In particular, my analysis makes violence central to the process of the translation of technology, and will challenge scholarship that has bypassed its role in the making of the aural past. It also contributes new narratives to the intersecting fields of sound studies and histories of science and empire. The book argues that sonic technologies forged a variety of connections between projects of governance and the people these projects intended to govern, sometimes with violence, others with offers of resonance and community, and others with only the scantest whispers of attention. While it covers uneven and fragmented terrain, it makes a strong claim for role of sonic technologies in transforming the habits and experience of politics.
For a copy of the readings, email Magdalena Ugarte at magdaugarte@gmail.com.
We hope to see you there.