CURRENT PROJECTS
Power Relations in Court Song: Lyrical Meaning and Political Life in Uganda
Drafted and contracted with University of Rochester Press, this project explores varied meanings in power relations, as they exist within twenty-one songs previously composed and performed in the royal court of Buganda. Coalescing ethnographic evidence, secondary research, lyrical analyses, performer-composers’ commentaries, and perspectives of modern commentators, the book problematizes the relationship between this repertoire’s multiplicity of meanings and their contemporary political applications within both the Kingdom of Buganda and the Republic of Uganda. In doing so, the book provides fresh insight into how the songs live in a dialogue with modern politics, as both recast the meanings and conceptions contained in each. Buganda and Uganda are unique for examining power relations in court songs, given the ways Kiganda kingship and national politics overlap, and given the extent to which the topics of the songs mediate the kingdom and country’s political past, present, and future. As such, the songs discussed in the book continually define the power dynamics shaping political life in Uganda, and shed light on the court musicians’ role in defining these dynamics. Power Relations in Court Song draws on ethnographic and historical research conducted on the court music of Buganda Kingdom since the early 2000s.
Becoming and Being a King’s Performer: The Lives and Legacies of the Last Court Musicians of Buganda
Also drafted and under review at University of Rochester Press, this book is a compilation of biographies of the seven court musicians who performed the songs discussed in Power Relations in Court Song. These biographies document and interpret the events, influences, and people that impacted the musicians’ lives. They paint a more complete image of the sociocultural and historical context surrounding the music they performed. The project is a rare archive of the inner workings of the performers’ creative lives.
Towards a Decolonial Pedagogy: Undergraduate Perspectives on Learning in an African Music and Dance Performance Course
This book (in progress) makes a case for musical pedagogy utilizing the cultural principles that inform the artistic styles being taught as frameworks for instruction. Drawing on two decades of experience teaching African music and dance performance in the American academy, the project demonstrates this approach’s efficacy through recorded performances, exemplary quotes from student reflections, and my analysis of these materials. The project contributes to ongoing discourses about effective pedagogy. Student perspectives — particularly some of the stereotypes, biases, expectations, and revelations that shape their learning process — are a unique feature of the project.