Earth in Sound: Music and Environmental Thought
MUSC 150
Spring 2027
| Section:
01
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Music is often treated as something separate from the natural world, a human art detached from ecosystems, climate, labor, and more-than-human life. But what if listening itself could become a way of understanding environments, public health, sustainability, and the politics of everyday life? This course introduces students to the field of ecomusicology through global listening practices, soundwalks, archival recordings, multispecies sound worlds, and place-based environmental inquiry. Drawing on topics such as soundscape studies, acoustemology, environmental justice, animal and plant musicalities, noise pollution, and climate activism, the course asks how music and sound shape the ways humans imagine, inhabit, and think about environments. Students will explore how sound and music can reveal histories of empire and extraction, relationships between humans and nonhuman life, and the social inequalities embedded in modern sonic environments. The course treats listening not simply as aesthetic appreciation, but as a critical and ethical practice. No prior musical training is required. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA MUSC |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (Music) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World by R. Murray Schafer (1977)
Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression by Steven Feld (1982)
¿Acoustic Multinaturalism, the Value of Nature, and the Nature of Music in Ecomusicology¿ by Ana María Ochoa Gautier (2016)
Atmospheric Noise: The Indefinite Urbanism of Los Angeles by Marina Peterson (2021)
Interspecies Communication: Sound and Music Beyond Humanity by Gavin Steingo (2024)
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly reading responses, an in-class midterm, and a final project. Possible final project formats include: a research paper; a podcast accompanied by a script transcript, bibliography, and clearly identified audio sources; or an annotated playlist with a curatorial essay. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Shatilova,Anya Times: .M.W... 01:20PM-02:40PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 2 | JR major: 2 | | |
| Seats Available: 15 | GRAD: 1 | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 3 | FR: 3 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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