What is sound? Is it a physical set of properties? Is it an individual experience? Is it a cross-cultural phenomenon? Sound is tremendously influential in human experience and yet research studies in social science have often downplayed sound in comparison to other senses such as sight. This course joins a growing chorus in sound studies that examines how sound worlds are constructed through cultural, political, economic, aesthetic, and performative contexts. This course will explore sound’s many nuanced dimensions including the constitution of and criticism surrounding soundscapes, the creation of acoustic communities, cultural constructions of silence and noise, contentious politics of hearing, and how sound organizes our social experience. The course will also explore topics in musical performance including current drives toward democratized music making or “musicking,” how sound might facilitate emotional reconciliation, and the technologization of music through algorithmic recommendation systems. Students will engage in personal sonic explorations and observations that reveal cultural constructions and experiences of sound. By the end of the course, students will develop analytical tools for conceptualizing sound and they will be more attuned to the sounds all around them.Social Science and History (SSHIS) courses develop students' critical thinking skills through the study of history and the social sciences (e.g. sociology, psychology, economics, political science, anthropology, geography), as well as through contemporary interdisciplines that draw heavily on these fields (e.g. feminist and queer studies, media studies, urban studies, ethnic studies). Subject matter in these courses contributes to students' cultural literacy while instructional materials and classroom assignments introduce basic research problems and techniques.

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