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Research Guides

Puget Sounds Honors Seminar (Spring 2012): Home

Online syllabus and guide to my class on ethnomusicology archiving and music history from/around Seattle.

Racer Sessions

Nyamuziwa Ensemble

Matsuri Taiko

Nirvana

Shabazz Palaces

Welcome!

Welcome to the course site for "Puget Sounds: Ethnomusicology Archiving Close to Home" (Honors 394B / SLN 14439). This class is an interdisciplinary experiment, one that blends elements of ethnomusicology, local music history, and archival studies. At the core of the class is Puget Sounds, a growing collection of regional music recordings held by the UW Libraries. Puget Sounds documents music across genres, from folk to rock, jazz to classical, and includes both published and unpublished recordings (e.g., the Crocodile Cafe Collection).

By the end of the quarter students will make contributions to Puget Sounds by way of creating new collections through fieldwork and/or archiving existing music collections. Student learning goals include...

  • developing a broader knowledge and appreciation of the plurality of musics produced in the greater Seattle region;
  • forming a nuanced and critically informed understanding of what we mean by the term music;
  • building confidence with participating in and contributing to discussions in a seminar type setting;
  • a grounding in archival issues, theories and techniques, particularly as they apply to the collection and documentation of music;
  • being introduced to the concepts and questions concerning ethnomusicologists;
  • becoming familiarized with making and editing field recordings.

The class is scheduled to meet on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:30 - 12:20 in Odegaard 220. All UW students are welcome to attend.

Course Requirements and Grading

Course Requirements

  • Weekly Readings/Viewings/Listening - Come to come class prepared (i.e., having completed the day's required reading, viewing, and/or listening).
  • Active Participation - Informed by your reading, viewing, and/or listening, participate actively in class discussions and activities
  • Assignments
    • 1) In-class presentations related to select readings. 
    • 2) Honors reflection log. 
    • 3) Final project and oral presentation. Students should discuss possible approaches they might take for their final paper/project by the end of the fourth week. Students are encouraged to seek out the instructor early, even though they will not have all of the information in hand for the paper/project until later in the course. More details available here.

The final paper/project and the reflection log is due by 5pm on June 8: use this dropbox to submit. Any student encountering difficulties turning in their papers on time should consult me as soon as possible.

Grading

  • Active and informed participation in class (30% of final grade).
  • Honors reflection log (15% of final grade).
  • Brief in-class presentations related to select readings (15% of final grade).
  • Final paper/project and presentation (40% of final grade).

Policies

Original Work - Any course in which students are asked to do original work outside the classroom can be abused through inappropriate collaboration and plagiarism. University regulations require that any case of plagiarism be sent to the Office of the Provost. If you have any questions about documentation, quotations, or related matters, please consult the instructor before submitting your work.
 
Method of Instruction - Discussion based on course materials, student input, guest speakers, presentations, and a field trip.
 
Disability Accommodations - To request academic accommodations due to a permanent or temporary disability please contact Disabled Student Services, 448 Schmitz, (206) 543-8924 (V/TTY).  If you have a letter from Disabled Student Services indicating that you have a disability that requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to us so we can discuss the accommodations you might need in this class.
 
Changes in Syllabus - Seminars often have a fairly large degree of flexibility, and some changes may be made in specific reading assignments and other activities during the course of the quarter for a variety of reasons.


Head, Distributed Media

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John Vallier
he/him
Contact:
University of Washington
Suzzallo Box 352900
Seattle, WA 98195-2900
(206) 616-1210
Website
Subjects: Music & Audio

Honors Curriculum

This class is brought to you by the UW Honors Program. While it's designed for Honors students, all UW students are welcome (and encouraged!) to join us for the quarter. Honors students are encouraged to archive items from this course in their Honors learning portfolios.  Readings, lecture notes, visual materials, music, poems, syllabi, tests, papers, etc, are examples of items that might assist with reflection on experiential learning and ways of thinking within and across disciplines. The Honors electronic learning portfolios span students’ undergraduate years and are best used as an ongoing, dynamic forum for the integration of knowledge.  In addition to archiving items, students are also asked to take a few minutes to write-up a paragraph or two describing the significance of the archived items and how what they learned in the course contributed to their larger experiences, goals, and thoughts about education and learning. 

Final Project Guidelines

Download the following PDF for more information about the final project.