Time: March 24, 2025 (Monday) 10:00-12:00 am

Venue: Alois Osterwalder Hall, NTNU GIEM (2F, No. 31, Shida Rd., Taipei)

Topic/Title: Listening to Memories. Writing about Extremes.

Topic/Title: Listening to Memories. Writing about Extremes.

What happens when a so-called field site exists in the memory of individuals? How can ethnographers work with individuals and communities to create spaces to listen and remember? How can ethnographers write about trauma, violence, and politically sensitive pasts? What is at stake in our work? In this presentation I will share methods and strategies I employed in researching music and memories of the Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1976). I will share highlights of the multidisciplinary methodologies I employed over the two decades of research and writing that informed my book, Music as Mao’s Weapon: Remembering the Cultural Revolution (2022).

Guest Lecturer: Lei X Ouyang

  ‧Associate Professor, Swarthmore College

  ‧Visiting Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Musicology, National Taiwan University

歐陽小莉is an Associate Professor of Music and Director of Asian American Studies at Swarthmore College (PA/USA) where she co-directs the Chinese Music Ensemble and teaches ethnomusicology courses centering East Asia and Asian America. Her research examines music and intersections with memory, politics, race and ethnicity, and social justice. Publications include Music as Mao’s Weapon: Remembering the Cultural Revolution (2022), and articles in journals including Asian Music, Ethnomusicology, Journal of Music History Pedagogy, Music & Politics, and MUSICultures. Ouyang is currently a Visiting Associate Professor at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Musicology. 

*This lecture is sponsored by BEST Program, Office of Bilingual Education, NTNU.