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Welcome to SEATRiP! |
- Friday, June 6, 2008
12 noon to 2:00 p.m.
ARTS 335
Retuning Javanese Identities:
Musical Choices and Cultural Affinities in a Modernizing Context
Nancy I. Cooper, University of Hawai`i at Manoa
A crisis has unfolded in Javanese music circles recently concerning an extremely popular fusion of indigenous, colonial-era, and popular genres using electronic instruments. Although innovations and fusions have long existed in Java, none has caused the alarm and vitriol associated with the revitalization and popularization of campur sari in the 1990s. The tuning of gamelan instruments to a ‘western’ scale and inclusion of electronic keyboards breach the limits of prior acceptability, providing lines of demarcation that I use in unlocking cultural factors behind the genre’s popularity, as well as the discomfiture of many musicians. Arguments over traditional gamelan versus campur sari reveal cultural tenacity on one hand and mass appeal of some elements of modernity on the other. Musicians’ responses provide an example of how social actors use their agency variously in maneuvering through an increasingly technological social framework to create alternative modernities.
Nancy I. Cooper is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa. Her research focuses on dynamics of gender, ritual, performance, and rural life. Her publications on Java include “Singing and Silences: transformations of power through Javanese seduction scenarios” in American Ethnologist (2000) and “Tohari’s Trilogy: Passages of Power and Time in Java” in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (2004). Her current project is a book focused on individual human agency in the face of ongoing modernization, using examples of musical fusion and revitalized rituals in Java. Dr. Cooper also remains active as a singer with Javanese gamelan ensembles.
- Winter and Spring 2008 Colloquium Series
- Mariam Lam will be a featured panelist for the Vietnamese American Summit (http://www.vangusa.org/m_summit.php) in the Vietnamese American National Gala™ (VANG™) 2007 4th Annual Golden Torch Awards™, held May 18-20, 2007 in Houston. This annual event is the premier Vietnamese American gathering in the nation, featuring Oscar-like festivity that showcases the Vietnamese American community’s celebration of professional achievements and community contributions.
- Vietnamese American National Gala 2007
- Advanced Study of Khmer (ASK) Program
- Volunteers in Asia Announces New Positions in Burma, Thailand, Laos
- "Religious Festivals in Contemporary Southeast Asia" Conference, February 16-18, 2007
- "The Map and the World: Buddhist Notions of Cosmology and Geography" Conference
- SEATRiP Postdoc Receives a Rockefeller Fellowship
- New Faculty Hired
- UCR Mellon Workshop Presents Southeast Asian Inter-textualities European Forms of Writing and Malay Forms of Writing
- UC Riverside Mellon Workshop in the Humanities: “Southeast Asian Inter-textualities"
- General Call for Papers for the Religious Festival in Contemporary Southeast Asia(Deadline: July 15, 2006)
- Call for Papers: 3rd Annual New Southeast Asia Cinemas Conference Theory and Practice: Southeast Asia and Filmmaking
- Sapto Raharjo, Visiting Artist, will be in residence in the Department of Music and SEATRiP during the Spring quarter, Spring 2006
- Courses Taught in Participating Departments
- News about Professor David Biggs
- News about Professor Deborah Wong
- News about Professor Lan Duong
- News about Professor Justin McDaniel
- News about Professor R. Michael Feener
- News about Postdoctoral Scholar Patrick Alcedo
- News about Postdoctoral Scholar Julian Millie
Friday, February 15, 2008
Sonja Downing (UCSB, ethnomusicology), children's agency in Balinese children's gamelan ensemblesFriday, February 15th, 12 noon to 2 p.m.
Arts Screening Room (Arts Building, 3rd floor)
Geoffrey Robinson (UCLA, History), on Indonesian history, human rights, and activismFriday, March 14, 2008, 12 noon to 2 p.m.
Arts Screening Room (Arts Building, 3rd floor)
Christina Firpo (Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo), on mixed-race children in Vietnam and adoption policies.May 15, 2008, time and location TBA
Truong Huyen Chi (independent scholar, anthropology), Vietnamese ethnic minorities and educational policy
June, date TBA
Nancy Cooper (U of Hawaii, anthropology), Javanese gamelan and gender relations


