This course equips students with the tools for
doing ethnographic fieldwork in Portland music
scenes. Topics unfold over three stages. First, a
prefield introduction to research design,
politics, and ethics. Second, an infield focus on
skill sets for participating in, observing, and
documenting the social life of a music-centered
scene. Third, a postfield emphasis on
relationships, rights, responsibilities, and
representational strategies. In class, we discuss
readings from anthropology, ethnomusicology,
sociology, performance studies, and folklore,
along with individual work in progress.