HIS 255 Sounds of the City: NYC History
This course examines the history of New York City through its musical and sonic cultures, positioning listening as a method of historical inquiry. Treating sound as both cultural expression and historical evidence, students will explore how music in New York reflects and shapes processes of migration, racial formation, labor, technological change, and urban transformation. Spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the course approaches the city as a dynamic site of cultural production in which diverse communities have articulated identity, conflict, and belonging through sound.