Course Description
If writing is defined primarily in visual terms, then how does one write about sound? This seminar takes an exploratory approach to think through and write on noise, voice, the soundscape, sound in media and film, as well as other auditory frameworks to introduce students to ways of learning historically and culturally about sound and listening. Sound studies is an inherently interdisciplinary field.  While this course is grounded in media studies, it also intersects with history, visual and performing art, architecture, music, cultural studies, anthropology and ethnography, as well as other disciplines. The course surveys wide ranging topics and cultures including American and European industrialization; rainforest soundscapes of Papua New Guinea; cassette sermons by Islamic preachers in Cairo, Egypt; avant-garde music and DJ culture, to name a few.

I also regularly teach MS52: Introduction to Sound Studies, which is a more expanded version of this course, to introduce students to ways of thinking historically and culturally about sound and listening. It and this seminar both prepare students for intermediate and advanced level sound studies courses including MS114: Film Sound and MS115: Sound, Art, and Power.

First-Year Seminars
This is a writing intensive course. Required of all first-year students, FYSs fulfill the Pitzer’s Written Expression educational objective. It is designed to help you - a first year student - develop a strong foundation in critical thinking (i.e., thinking in analytical ways about facts and ideas) and in writing within an academic discourse community comprising of faculty, fellow students, and an educated audience. Practice in writing for an academic discourse community will prepare you for a wide range of writing, both in your other classes and beyond. You will gain practice in academic argumentation (presenting a cogent and effective case for a position), as well as in creative expression. You will develop and refine a set of intellectual tools that make effective college writing a smoother and easier task.

During the course of the semester, you are expected to write upwards of 25 pages, including formal assignments and polished essays, in-class writing, and informal writing exercises outside of class. Drafting, peer review, and revising are central to the process-oriented view of writing that the seminars seek to foster. All letter-graded assignments will receive written feedback from me. In response to feedback from me and/or your peers in the class, you will have the opportunity to revise at least 10 pages of your written work.

Please meet with me during my office hours at least twice during the semester to discuss your assignments, as well as visiting Pitzer's Writing Center outside of class meetings for help and feedback on your writing assignments.

The Pitzer Writing Center
The study and practice of writing are integral to a liberal arts education. In support of the college’s mission and educational objectives, the Pitzer Writing Center fosters inquiry about writing across the curriculum through individual consultations, research, and resources on writing and its instruction, including workshops, reference works, and handouts. The meaningful participation of students in center governance and program design is a core Writing Center value.

Writing Center consultations and workshops are designed to facilitate student engagement, a core Pitzer value.  In consultations, students engage in talk that prompts them to reflect on their choices as writers, clarify and deepen their thinking, frame their projects for specific audiences and purposes, or test new approaches to the writing process–all with the goal of nurturing the habits of mind that support thoughtful inquiry.

Through programming and consultations, the Writing Center also creates community around writing. We believe learning to write is a life-long pursuit and all writers benefit from focused feedback on works-in-progress. We listen carefully to writers, giving their ideas attention and respect, and often tailor our approach in response to articulated needs. At the same time, we help writers identify strategies and resources for situating their perspectives in larger public conversations. All Writing Center Fellows participate in ongoing tutor education to give them a theoretical foundation for their work.

The Writing Center is located in 131 Mead Hall, just across from the fountain. You can find about more about its programs and schedule a consultation appointment here.

Statement of Student Learning Outcome (SLO)
First-year seminar challenges students to achieve the following aspiration

1. Regard learning to write well as a life-long pursuit, not the accomplishment of a single semester or even an entire undergraduate career.
2. Grapple with the ambiguity and complexity found within texts, which range from the written word to film, art, performance, and beyond; respond to texts critically and thoughtfully.
3. Engage in an ongoing process of intellectual inquiry and “conversation” through writing:
• Appreciate and experience the creativity, independent thinking, and intellectual risk-taking involved in effective academic writing.
4. Craft thoughtful and insightful questions worthy of investigation; raise significant problems.

• Recognize and contend with alternative viewpoints/counter-arguments.
• Identify research/information needs.
• Locate appropriate scholarly and popular sources.
• Engage with, evaluate, and draw inferences from sources.
• Craft a clear, arguable, and compelling thesis.
• Experience writing as a complex social interaction between writer and reader
• Participate in an intellectual community of peers where writing and ideas are exchanged and critiqued.
• Rethink and deepen ideas through a recursive process of discussing, drafting, receiving and giving feedback, and revising at any and every point along the way.
• Gain awareness of audience and of voice.
• Practice writing as a form of critical thinking, rather than merely the achievement of sentence-level correctness.

Seminar-specific SLOs:

1. To develop an understanding of some of the major schools of thought and areas of study within the field of sound studies;
2. To develop a sense of the historical and cultural contexts of sound, listening, and sound reproduction technologies;
3. To develop a beginning knowledge of major sound theories;
4. To develop the tools to critically address sound across styles and modes of practice, presentation, and acoustic experiences;
5. To be able to discuss and convey the above-mentioned knowledge and skills in critical written arguments, oral presentations and discussion, as well as through other forms, including sound recordings and media projects;
6. To be able to work and learn in both individual and group contexts.
   
   
   

Course Organization
Attendance is mandatory at all class sessions every week. Tuesday classes are normally comprised of a lecture and media presentation. You need to complete all of your readings for the week by class on Tuesday. Thursday class sessions are normally reserved for discussion of the readings, media, and other relevant class topics. There is ample time allotted to discuss the readings and other course material. Normally, class activities include group discussion, online commentary (e.g. discussion questions), media, writing assignments (both in-class and take-home), peer reviews on writing, and student presentations. There may also be guest speakers as well as site visits depending on relevance to our class topic and level of interest. Your participation in class activities will factor into your final grade.

You are required to help frame at least part of the discussion on Thursday by posting 2-3 discussion questions to Canvas/Discussion by Wednesday night. Asynchronous discussion of these questions can take place on Canvas before and after the class discussion, which should focus the important questions and discourses for the class. Any additional media (e.g. sound recordings, video and other media clips, link to blog posts and articles, etc.) that you think might be relevant to class can be posted to Canvas for reference during class meetings.

Attendance
You are expected to arrive on time for class and be present for the entire class period. Your attendance and active participation is central to the class’s success and to your success in the class. Attendance is determined by when I take roll. Illness (e.g. COVID-19 or other symptoms), emergencies, or religious observances will be excused, and I normally ask for documentation (e.g. a note from Student Health if you are ill). Please contact me as soon as possible if you need to miss class for one of these reasons. If you are absent, you will need to submit any work that was due that day, within one week. We will not be offering Zoom as a method to attend class. You have two “free passes” for when you need a personal day. All other absences will negatively impact your total grade percentage by one point.

Class Participation
Your active, well-prepared participation in class discussions is essential to creating a dynamic (i.e. not boring!) learning environment. Although you will not receive a letter grade for class participation, it will figure into your final grade based on my observations.

We may study sexually explicit, political, and otherwise challenging material in this course. These are not included for shock value, but are legitimate investigations of controversial subject matters in media. You are certainly encouraged to explore difficult and complex subject matters in your work, and you should be prepared to consider these issues intellectually, emotionally, and with responsibility. Our class is a safe space in which students can express their beliefs and opinions within the context of the course material. You always have a voice, but please be respectful of others as well. Abusive language and behavior are not tolerated. Open-mindedness is encouraged!

Laptop computers with an internet connection and appropriate software, sometimes smart phones and other mobile digital devices can be used in class only for class-related activities (e.g. taking notes or relevant web searches). I ask students to agree to these conditions for class: no recording of audio, photo, or video unless pre-approved by instructor; no emails, texting, messaging, checking your social media accounts and other non-class related activities on your device. I encourage thoughtful experimentation with new media technologies (e.g. AI) in your work, and that you make these transparent in your projects or papers. Violation of class media technology policies will, in some cases, affect your class grade or result in your removal from class.

Class Assignments

All writing assignments must be double-spaced, typewritten or word-processed. Use a 10 or 12-point font, 1-inch margins. As students and scholars, you are expected to learn the basics of academic writing, including appropriate style, source documentation, as well as other practices and styles. Reference to class readings are expected when the assignment specifies such requirements, as are citation of your sources. You are expected to make use of a standard citation format, such as the Chicago Manual or MLA-style, in documenting sources:

MLA: https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/mla
Chicago: https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/chicago/

Clarity of expression, accuracy, thoroughness, and neatness are among the criteria that will be evaluated. Proofread your writing assignments carefully!

Hand your work in on time. Unless an extension is approved by myself in advance of the due date, your grade will be reduced by one letter grade (i.e. B to C) per class day your paper is late. Excessive tardiness could lead to no credit (i.e. an "F") for the assignment.

Revisions are an integral part of academic and other forms of writing. You have the option to revise Essays 1 or 2 (choose one) based on the feedback you have received for a different grade. These revisions are due on the final class meeting. Revisions are a part of the process for Essay 3. They are mandatory and are scheduled into the syllabus.

In this class, you are required to meet with me individually at least twice during my office hours to discuss your assignments, your grades, and your overall performance in class. This is a good practice to cultivate for other courses you will take during your academic career. I am always open to suggestions and feedback!

Reading and Media Assignments
You should complete all the reading assignments by the Tuesday of the week when they are assigned. Please purchase the Sterne textbook. Required readings, when selected from optional textbooks, will be posted on Canvas. Reading assignments are drawn from the following texts:

Required Textbook (can be purchased at the Huntley Bookstore)
Jonathan Sterne, ed., The Sound Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, 2012

Optional Textbooks (Required readings from these books will be posted on Canvas, (under 'Modules') some are available as ebooks through Claremont Colleges Library)
Michael Bull & Les Back, eds., The Auditory Culture Reader (Sensory Formations), London: Berg Publishers, 2004
Christoph Cox & Daniel Warren, eds., Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, London: Continuum, 2004
Caleb Kelly, ed., Sound, Documents of Contemporary Art Series, London/Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press, 2011
Trevor Pinch and Karin Bijsterveld, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, New York: Oxford University Press, 2013
Mark M. Smith, Hearing History: A Reader, Athens: Georgia University Press, 2004

Sound & Other Media
Films, videos, and other moving image media shown and discussed in class are usually on Canvas (https://pitzer.instructure.com/, though the "Pages" tool) or on the internet (e.g. YouTube) which are linked to this web syllabus. Sound recordings are either accessed through links or posted in a Box folder called "Sound Studies Audio Resources" (https://pitzer.app.box.com/folder/132768333469) which I will give all of you access to before a listening assignment. Lastly I may draw from a no-longer-active class blog built by students in earlier version of Introduction to Sound Studies.

Additional References (Many are available as ebooks at the Claremont Colleges Library. A good place to start your research for final paper and projects)
Rick Altman, Silent Film Sound (Film and Culture Series). New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
---, editor, Sound Theory Sound Practice. New York: Routledge, 1992. G. Douglas Barrett. After Sound: Toward a Critical Music. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Jacques Attali. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2002.
Jean-Francois Augoyard & Henry Torgue. eds. Sonic Experience: A Guide To Everyday Sounds. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006.
G. Douglas Barrett. Experimenting the Human: Art, Music, and the Contemporary Posthuman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2023.
---, After Sound: Toward a Critical Music. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Jay Beck & Tony Grajeda. eds. Lowering The Boom: Critical Studies in Film Sound. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008.
Karin Bijsterveld. Mechanical Sound: Technology, Culture, and Public Problems of Noise in the Twentieth Century (Inside Technology). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.
---, & Jose van Dijck, eds., Sound Souvenirs: Audio Technologies, Memory and Cultural Practice, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009.
Barry Blesser & Linda-Ruth Salter. Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.
Michael Bull. Sirens. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
---, Sound Moves: iPod Culture and Urban Experience. New York: Routledge, 2007.
John Cage. Silence: Lectures and Writings, Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1961.
Adriana Cavarero. For More Than One Voice: Towards a Philosophy of Vocal Expression. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005.
Michel Chion. Sound: An Acoulogical Treatise. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016.
---, Film, A Sound Art (Film and Culture Series). New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
---, The Voice in Cinema. trans. Claudia Gorbman, New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
---, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. trans. Claudia Gorbman, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Seth Kim-Cohen. Against Ambience and Other Essays. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
---, In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art. New York: Continuum, 2009.
Steven Connor. Beyond Words: Sobs, Hums, Stutters and Other Vocalizations. London; Reaktion Books, 2014.
Donald Crafton. The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926-1931. History of The American Cinema, Vol. 4, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1997.
Mike D'Errico. Push: Software Design and the Cultural Politics of Music Production. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.
Mladen Dolar. A Voice and Nothing More. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.
Leslie C. Dunn, and Nancy C. Jones. eds. Embodied Voices: Representing Female Vocality in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Frances Dyson. The Tone of Our Times: Sound, Sense, Economy , and Ecology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014.
---, Sounding New Media: Immersion and Embodiment in the Arts and Culture. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2009.
Nina Sun Eidsheim. The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.
---, & Katherine Meizel. eds. The Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019 .
---, Sensing Sound: Singing and Listening as Vibrational Practice. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015
Veit Erlmann. Reason and Resonance: A History of Modern Aurality. New York: Zone Books, 2010.
--- ed., Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity. London: Berg Publishers, 2004.
Scott Eyman. The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
Steven Feld. Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics and Song in Kaluli Expression. 30th anniversary edition, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012.
---, Voices of the Rainforest: A Day in the Life of Bosavi Papua New Guinea. Santa Fe, NM: VoxLox for the Bosavi Peoples Fund, 2019.
Robert Wallace Fink, Melinda Latour, Zachary Wallmark. eds. The Relentless Pursuit of Tone: Timbre in Popular Music. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2018.
Ana Maria Ochoa Gautier. Aurality: Listening and Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Colombia. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.
Steve Goodman. Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012.
Simon Frith & Andrew Goodwin, eds. On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word. New York: Pantheon Books, 1990.
Claudia Gorbman. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
Greg Hainge. Noise Matters: Towards an Ontology of Noise. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Paul Hegarty, Rumour and Radiation: Sound in Video Art. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
---, Noise Music: A History. London: Continuum, 2007.
Stefan Helmreich. Sounding The Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016.
---, Alien Ocean: Anthropological Voyages in Microbial Seas. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2009.
Charles Hirschkind, The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2006.
Don Ihde. Listening and Voice: Phenomenologies of Sound. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1976.
James H. Johnson. Listening in Paris: A Cultural History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995.
Yael Kaduri. The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Western Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Lilya Kaganovsky & Masha Salazkina, eds. Sound, Speech, Music in Soviet and Post-Soviet Cinema. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2014
Douglas Kahn. Earth Sound Earth Signal: Energies and Earth Magnitude in The Arts. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2013.
---, Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
Kathryn Kalinak. Settling The Score: Music and The Classical Hollywood Film. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
Brian Kane, Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Anahid Kassabian, Ubiquitous Listening: Affect, Attention, and Disturbed Subjectivity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013
---, Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music, New York: Routledge, 2000.
Michael C. Keith. Radio Cultures: The Sound Medium in American Life. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2008.
Caleb Kelly. Gallery Sound. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
---, Cracked Media: The Sound of Malfunction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009.
Friedrich A. Kittler. Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. trans. Geoffrey Winthrop-Young & Michael Wutz, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.
Dan Lander and Micah Lexier, eds., Sound by Artists. Toronto and Banff: Art Metropole/Walter Philips Gallery, 1990.
James Lastra. Sound Technology and the American Cinema: Perception, Representation, Modernity. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
Amy Lawrence. Echo and Narcissus: Women’s Voices in Classical Hollywood Cinema. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
Brandon LaBelle. Poetics of Listening: Inner Life, Social Transformation, Planetary Practices. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025.
---, Acoustic Justice: Listening, Performativity, and the Work of Reorientation. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
---, Sonic Agency: Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance. London: Goldsmiths Press, 2018.
---, Lexicon of the Mouth: Poetics and Politics of Voice and the Oral Imagination. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
---, Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2010.
---. Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. London: Continuum, 2006.
Alan Licht, Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories, New York: Rizzoli, 2007.
Ming-Yuen S. Ma, There is No Soundtrack: Rethinking Art, Media, and the Audio-Visual Contract, Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2020.
---, & Erika Suderburg, eds. Resolutions 3: Global Networks of Video. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
John Melillo, The Poetics of Noise from Dada to Punk. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
Paul D. Miller, Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.
David Morton, Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000.
John Mowitt. Sounds: The Ambient Humanities. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2015.
---, Radio: Essays in Bad Reception. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011.
---, Percussion: Drumming, Beating, Striking. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002.
Jean Luc Nancy. Listening. Charlotte Mandell, trans., New York: Fordham University Press, 2007.
David Novak. Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.
--- & Matt Sakakeeny. eds. Keywords in Sound. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015.
Pauline Oliveros. Quantum Listening. London: Spiral House Editions, 2024.
---, Sonic Meditations. Kingston, NY: PoPandMoM Publications, 2022.
Walter J. Ong. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New York: Routledge, 1991.
Dominic Pettman. Sonic Intimacy: Voice, Species, Technics (or, How to Listen to the World). Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 2017.
Dylan Robinson. Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2020
Tara Rodgers, ed. Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.
Holly Rogers. eds. (with Jeremy Barham) The Music and Sound of Experimental Film. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2017.
---, ed. Music and Sound in Documentary Film. New York: Routledge, 2015.
---, Sounding the Gallery: Video and the Rise of Art-Music. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Tricia Rose. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.
R. Murray Schafer. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1977.
Leigh Eric Schmidt. Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion and the American Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
David Schwarz. Listening Subjects: Music, Psychoanalysis, Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997.
Hillel Schwartz. Making Noise: From Babel to The Big Bang and Beyond. Cambridge, MA: Zone Books, 2011.
Kaja Silverman. The Acoustic Mirror; The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988.
Mary Ann Smart. ed. Siren Songs: Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Opera. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Jacob Smith. Eco-Sonic Media. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015.
---, Spoken Word: Postwar American Phonograph Cultures. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.
---, Vocal Tracks: Performance and Sound Media. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.
Mark M. Smith. Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in History. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2007.
---, Listening to Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Jonathan Sterne. Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022.
---, MP3: The Meaning of a Format (Sign, Storage, Transmission). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012.
---, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.
Jennifer Lynn Stoever. The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening. New York: NYU Press, 2016.
Peter Szendy, Listen: A History of Our Ears. New York: Fordham University Press, 2007.
Michael Taussig, Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses. New York: Routledge, 1993.
Timothy Taylor, Strange Sounds: Music, Technology and Culture. New York: Routledge, 2001.
Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America (1900-1933). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. (ebook available)
Marie Thompson. Beyond Unwanted Sound: Noise, Affect, and Aesthetic Moralism. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
Gary Tomlinson. The Singing of the New World: Indigenous Voice in the Era of European Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007.
David Toop. Sinister Resonance: The Mediumship of the Listener. London: Continuum, 2010.
Steve Waksman. Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1999.
Alexander G. Weheliye. Phonographies: Groves in Sonic Afro-Modernity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.
Elisabeth Weis and John Belton. eds. Film Sound: Theory and Practice. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.

* Your general performance in class including participation, attendance and punctuality, except in the special cases listed above, such as if you have more than 2 unexcused absences.

Generally, outstanding ('A') students in this class have good attendance and completed all their assignments on time. They are consistently well prepared for class, and actively participate in and advance our discussions with pertinent information, questions, and observations. Their work demonstrate their ability to innovate and respond to the topic at hand, awareness of the issues addressed by and the historical context for the media works and genres they are referencing, as well as their ability to articulate their observations and analyses in a clear and concise manner. Only letter grades are given out in this class.

Email Policy
Responding to students via email is a courtesy I extend to you. During the week I will do my best to respond to you within 48 hours (so please note: a “night before” email may not get answered in time!). If you write to me over the weekend you will not receive a reply until Monday. The best way to get my time and attention is to visit listed office hours or, if these conflict with another commitment, to email to make an appointment. Office hours are yours; please use them. I do not discuss grades or class performance over email; please see me during office hours.

Academic Accommodations
If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact Academic Support Services in the Student Affairs Office by email at the beginning of the semester if you have not already registered for accommodations. PASS email: academicsupport@pitzer.edu

Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the faculty during office hours to discuss their disability/accommodation related needs. Use of Academic Support Services, including testing accommodations, requires prior authorization by PASS and compliance with approved procedures.

It is the college’s policy to provide, on a flexible and individualized basis, reasonable accommodations to students who have disabilities which may affect their ability to participate in course activities or to meet course requirements.

Academic Integrity
All Pitzer students adhere to the College’s Code of Student Conduct, which prohibits academic dishonesty, including those forms of academic dishonesty that are listed in the Pitzer Student Handbook (Section III.C) In this class, we discuss how to cite sources, how to engage dynamically with a range of sources to develop your own argument, and how to clarify for your reader where a critic’s voice ends and yours begins. Feel free to contact me if you any questions about these issues.

Questions About Grading
I try my best to make my grading criteria as clear as possible, and you are welcome to come and discuss your grades and your class performance with me. However, I only consider legitimate concerns, and be aware that your grade is as likely to go down as it is to go up after I reassess your assignment. I do not tolerate haggling, bribing, threats, and any other pointless arguments. I consider all aspects of your performance before I assign a grade, please respect my assessment as I respect your efforts.

Extra Credit
Students are encouraged to attend relevant programs (e.g. screenings, exhibitions, performances, lectures, conferences, social media events, etc.) and write a 2 page (typed and double-spaced) report of the event or activity. Incorporate the event's relevance to the class as well as your personal responses to it. Students are allowed two extra credit papers. Announcements for events of interest to this class are done in the first 5 mins. of each class.

Course Schedule:

Week 1: Introduction

Tuesday 8.26 / Thursday 8.28

I. Sound Theories

Week 2: Listening

Required Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 23-28, 48-72
Audio Culture, pp.10-14

Suggested Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 65-112
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 1-18, 25-60, 77-112
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 3-35
Sound, pp. 112-143
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 73-90

Media on MS52 blog

Week 3: Noise, Intercollegiate Media Studies
Tuesday 9.9 / Thursday 9.11

Required Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 25-28
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 29-39, 152-167

Suggested Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 15-61 (pp. 59-61 is an interview with Merzbow)
Hearing History, pp. 51-53, 319-330
Sound, pp. 93-107
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 427-448

Media on MS52 blog

Week 4: Voices, Writing Center, Essay 1 Assignment
Tuesday 9.16 / Thursday 9.18

Required Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 504-519; pick one to read: 520-532 or 533-538

Suggested Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 491-503, 539-554
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 381-480
Sound, pp. 93-107
Michel Chion, The Voice in Cinema
Leslie C. Dunn, and Nancy C. Jones, eds., Embodied Voices: Representing Female Vocality in Western Culture
Amy Lawrence, Echo and Narcissus: Women’s Voices in Classical Hollywood Cinema
Kaja Silverman, The Acoustic Mirror; The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema

Suggested Media (on Canvas/Pages)
Strange Fruit (2002, U.S.) Directed by Joel Katz

Media on MS52 blog

II. Histories of Sound

Week 5: Listening to History / Histories of Listening, Essay 1 Due

Tuesday 9.23 / Thursday 9.25

Required Reading
Hearing History, pp. ix-xxii, then read Hearing History, pp. 184-204
Or read The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 475-489 and watch this film:
Sisters with Transistors (2020, U.S.) Directed by Lisa Rovner (on Canvas/Pages)

Suggested Reading
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 117-217
Hearing History, the whole book!

Media on MS52 blog

Week 6: Histories of Sound & Technology, Essay 3 Assignment
Tuesday 9.30 / Thursday 10.2

Required Reading
Hearing History, pp. 151-168
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 117-129

Suggested Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 213-224
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 176-197, 201-223, 298-319, 459-479

Media on MS52 blog

Week 7: Acoustic Archive, Library Tour, Essay 2 Assignment, Essay 3 Abstract Due
Tuesday 10.7 / Thursday 10.9

Required Reading
Hearing History, pp. 295-318
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 544-560

Suggested Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 304-324, 475-489

Required Media (pick ONE to watch on Canvas/Pages)
Phantom of the Operator (2004, Canada) Directed by Caroline Martel
The Tailenders (2005, U.S.) Directed by Adele Horne

Suggested Media
Sonic Antarctica (2009) by Andrea Polli, explanation of the project

Media on MS52 blog

III. Sound as Media

Week 8: Media Networks and Communities, Essay 3 Bibliography Due
Fall Break - No Class Meeting on Tuesday 10.14
Thursday 10.16

Required Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 234-247
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 480-502

Suggested Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 329-350
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 281-295
Hearing History, pp. 279-294
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 254-264, 411-439, 440-458
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 40-47, 283-303, 329-387
Sound, pp. 204-206

Suggested Media
Phantom of The Operator (2004, Canada) Directed by Caroline Martel

Media on MS52 blog

Week 9: Film Sound, Essay 2 Due
Tuesday 10.21 / Thursday 10.23

Required Reading
Audio-Vision, pp. 3-13
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 225-233

Suggested Reading
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 281-295
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 347-408
Sound, pp. 200-203, 206-208
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 248-253
Film Sound, the whole book!

Required Media
Excerpts from Persona (1966) Directed by Ingmar Bergman - screened in class
Excerpts from Psycho (1960) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock - screened in class
Additional media on MS52 blog

IV. Sound Space

Week 10: Soundscape, Career Services, Essay 2 Peer Review
Tuesday 10.28 / Thursday 10.30

Required Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 95-104, 197-208

Suggested Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 40-46, 88-93, 94-109
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 137-163, 303-374
Hearing History, pp. 85-111, 267-278, 319-330
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 39-78, 273-319, 526-543
Sound, pp. 187-193, 208-210
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 105-116, 140-151, 186-196, 265-282, 329-335, 468-474

Week 11: Acoustemology & Representation, Essay 3 Draft Due
Tuesday 11.4 / Thursday 11.6

Required Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 168-185
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 223-239

Suggested Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 67-72, 82-87
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 241-279
Sound, pp. 112-117, 123-129, 187-193, 197-199, 219-222
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 409-418

Required Media
La Selva (1997) by Francisco Lopez - access through the "Sound Studies Audio Resources" box folder (an email will be sent to you individual with additional information)
Additional media on MS52 blog

Week 12: Open Class Topic; Study Abroad, Redford Conservancy

Required Reading
TBA

Suggested Reading
TBA

Media
TBA

WEEK 13: Student Panels

Tuesday 11.18

Thursday 11.20

No Required Reading

Week 14: Thanksgiving, Individual Meetings on Essay 3

Thursday 11.27 Thanksgiving Holiday - No Class Meeting

Week 15: Last Week of Classes, Student Panel, Essay 3 Due

Thursday 12.4

No Required Reading

Thursday 12.15
Absolute deadline for Essay 3, upload to Drop Box by 5PM

<Back to Course Listing

Back to top