Civilizing Wildness: Musical Practices as Political and Economic Resources in Contemporary Ukraine (Research Brief)
July 1, 2009
My research focused on the intersections of musical culture with political and economic campaigns in two populations in the Ukrainian borderlands: the Hutsuls of the Western Ukrainian Carpathian mountains and the Tatars of Crimea.
The different uses of musical expressive culture to further the broader goals and agendas of these historically different groups reveal starkly contrasting narratives about what it means to be a Ukrainian citizen in the 21st century. Through in-depth fieldwork combining interviews, archival research, music-making, I collected data on how these two populations view their musical cultures as impacting on - and being impacted by - the social realities they face as Ukrainian citizens.
Download the pdf at the top of this page for the full brief.
Maria Sonevytsky, of Columbia University, was a 2008-09 Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO) fellow.
