SOC 2600 Havana Nights:Cuban Youth Music Culture

Cuba is undergoing historical and rapid social change. This interdisciplinary sociology, music, and gender studies course explores contemporary Cuba through participant observation of youth music culture in the cities of Havana, Vinales, and Santa Clara. Students will receive academic instruction in historical and contemporary Cuba from both American and Cuban professors. Particular attention will be paid to the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, and race/ethnicity. Students will be exposed to ethnomusicology parameters of sound, setting, and significance. Students will use intersectionality analysis (informed by Launius and Hassel) and interdisciplinary feminist qualitative methods (informed primarily by Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw and Hesse-Biber). Students will be immersed in Cuban culture through casa particulares (homestays) and daily attendance at various musical events, clubs, and museums. Local guides, out-trips, academic lectures from Cuban Experts, instructor led reflections and facilitations, and student observations and reflections are all key components of this course.