Course content

This course consist of two modules.

Module 1: Sounding Out: Sensibilities of the Sonic through Theory, Method and Practice

The purpose of this modul is to explore what "sonic sensibilities" (Voegelin 2021) might mean and how they can function in diverse everyday educational and knowledge ecologies (Hovde 2013). As with all epistemological processes, this requires attention to both the theories that inform and contextualize everyday interactions as well as practical, concrete pedagogical approaches to what it means to learn (and teach) in ways that centre the ear rather than the eye.

To these ends, this modul is designed to engage Master’s and Doctoral researchers in broader discussions about the theoretical and practical understandings of the sonic across fields and disciplines. Sound pedagogies (Gershon 2020) and the sonic methodologies that comprise them (Bull & Cobussen 2020; e.g. Eldridge, Carruthers-Jones, Norum 2020) are at once longstanding approaches to building and sustaining knowledge for emerging practices in intentionally sound-focused approaches and for more than human animals. In other words, we often learn by listening to others talk about ideas and about our ecologies through the sounds they produce as "sonic personae" (Schulze 2018).

As such, this proposed modul will draw from a variety of sonic and sensory fields (e.g., sound studies, ethnomusicology, rhetoric, anthropology) to present advantages and ideas behind their use and to put those possibilities into practice (e.g., workshops, lesson plans). When combined they form what Gershon (2017) calls "sound curriculum", the many ways one can be, know, and do through sound to create and sustain knowledge in communities.

Module 2: Investigating Sound Cities: Urban Sustainable Ecologies and the Sonic.

This course seeks to build on recent critical attention paid to questions of sound in relation to equity, care, and justice in built and natural environments in disciplines such as urban studies and critical geography (e.g., Massey, 2005; McKittrick, 2005; Kern, 2020). Our course also recognizes that there is continuing study at the intersection of sound studies and architecture (Blesser & Salter 2007) or urban studies (B; Kang and Schulte-Fortkamp 2016; Bull 2016), such as the complications regarding construction and urban planning in relation to airplane flight paths. However, such considerations are often negatively framed, echoing their eugenic past within urban ecologies (e.g. Bijsterveld, Cleophas, Krebs 2014. M. M. Smith, 2008). Therefore, rather than reinscribing such pathways for eugenics, this discussion of sustainability within urban ecologies extends then also into issues of health and the constant sound levels, in relation to questions of i.e., social class, race, gender, and of sexuality.

In response, this course focuses on what it means to employ in critical research "sonic methodologies" (Bull & Cobussen 2020) as well as a wider variety of approaches in conceptualizing urban ecologies. A central question we will examine together in this course is: how can the sonic help us better conceptualize and, actually, build urban ecologies in a more sustainable and equitable manner towards a more full corporeal, sensory experience? Such questions are central not only to critical social sciences and humanities but are also significant for conceptualizing ecologies of knowledge and their relations.

Learning outcome

• Knowledge

The student:

• will develop advanced knowledge on sound and knowledge in relation to equity, care, and justice in urban and natural environments
• will develop knowledge on how the sonic informs critical discourses about knowledge production in institutions and through everyday experiences, in urban infrastructures.
• will discuss what sound is and what it can do, and various related theoretical and methodological approaches
• will develop advanced knowledge on how sound informs our understanding of space and place
• how ecologies of the natural and built environment are shaped by sound, and of how sonic sensibilities are articulated

Skills

The student:

• will develop skills in using sonic knowledge in classrooms and everyday experiences and engaging in urban ecologies and related possibilities for sustainability.
• will develop skills in using various methods for research and teaching with sound, including basic recording techniques
• will develop skills in discussing and researching how sound practices can improve the conceptualization and construction of sustainable, equitable knowledge ecologies.

General competence

The student:

• will practice and develop skills within transdisciplinary research and teaching.
• will develop their ability to work in an international educational and sonic environment.
• will have knowledge how sound curricula and pedagogical practices can create and sustain knowledge within and across fields/disciplines in academic space, towards comprehending acoustic engagements with urban ecologies in Europe and beyond.

Learning methods and activities

Collective and individual performative and student-involved activities. There will be both digital and physical gatherings during the semester.

Compulsory assignments

• Presentation
• Written assignment
• Module 1: Compulsory work requirements according to the course description
• Module 2: Compulsory work requirements according to the course description

Specific conditions

Recommended previous knowledge

Affiliation with a European Master/PhD-program.

Course materials

A list of course materials will be available for registered students. The digital platform will be Zoom.