GRSJ Assistant Professor Dr. Roseanna Sia will present as part of the Museum of Anthropology’s Visual + Material Culture Research Seminar on Thursday, Nov. 21.
Migrant Girls, Sound, and Remaking Space
How have migrant girls used sound to transform the everyday spaces they inhabit? This talk considers how migrant girls have materialized sonic imaginaries in their daily environments, altering the social relations that sought to constrain them. Drawing on oral histories, it explores the rich contributions of Mexican American girls to the sonic cultures of the Texas-Mexico borderlands in the 1930s to 1960s. Mexican American girls developed creative ways to bring song into their daily environments. They repurposed spaces ranging from the domestic home, the street, the bus station, the pecan sheller workroom, and the church for the joy and pleasure of song. By developing a sonic borderlands imaginary through genres as varied as flamenco, bolero, and tango, they asserted their presence as Mexican American girls in the Texas-Mexico borderlands. They powerfully remade the spaces they navigated in their daily lives, opening up new possibilities for self-making and community formation.
About MOA Visual + Material Culture Research Seminar Series
This interdisciplinary seminar series is for anyone with interests in visual and material culture across different departments at UBC and beyond. The seminar provides an opportunity to share research and exchange ideas, usually followed by conversations over a drink at Koerner’s Pub. Open to students, staff, faculty and community members in and around UBC.
Where: MOA’s Community Lounge (Near the administration reception and opposite the MOA Library and Archives).
When: November 21, 4 – 5 pm
Conveners: Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura, MOA Curator, Asia and UBC Asian Studies, Dr. Nuno Porto, MOA Curator, Africa + South America and UBC Art History, Visual Art & Theory and Dr. Yasmin Amaratunga, Curator of Collections, UBC Art History, Visual Art & Theory.
