Sound and Social Justice Commons

The Sound and Social Justice Commons (SSJC)

College of Ethnic Studies

San Francisco State University

The Sound and Social Justice Commons provides supportive infrastructure for interdisciplinary research and praxis oriented towards the ways in which communities of color create, perform, record, and disseminate sound in different socio-economic and political contexts. We perceive the study of sound broadly to encompass many practices relevant to the intersecting needs of scholarly and local communities including, but not limited to, musical performance and sound art, language revitalization and change, speeches, poetry, and other public utterances, the cultural politics of noise, and the relationship of sound and sonic practices to identity formation.

Objectives:

• To provide supportive infrastructure for interdisciplinary research into sound as it relates to and expands the boundaries of the College of Ethnic Studies and its component departments,
• To investigate and pursue cross-College collaborative projects that relate to the intersection of sound and other fields including but not limited to music, dance, anthropology, sociology, cinema, and others,
• To facilitate student exposure to a wide range of scholarly activities and creative praxis that emphasizes the importance of sound and aural culture as integral to Ethnic Studies and other intersecting fields.

Current Projects as of Fall 2014:

• The Sound and Social Justice Collective is a performing ensemble housed within the SSJC. The Collective brings together five generations of community musician-activists with SFSU faculty and students to study, create, and perform music that amplifies the long histories of social and political activism at SFSU. Current members include Jimmy Biala, Jacqueline Corona, Karl Evangelista, Jordan Glenn, Lewis Jordan, Masaru Koga, and John-Carlos Perea.

For more information on the SSJC, please contact any of the faculty co-directors: