Music and Youth Cultures: Ethnography of Electronic Dance Music Scenes.
Date: June 17–25, 2020.
Credits: 4.
Lecturers: Prof. Luis-Manuel Garcia (University of Birmingham), prof. David Verbuč (Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague).
The purpose of the summer school Music and youth cultures, with this year’s thematic focus on ethnography of electronic dance music (EDM) scenes, is to provide students with necessary theoretical and methodological tools for the study of EDM youth cultures, scenes, and communities.
Classes will be taught by two ethnomusicologists: Luis-Manuel Garcia from the University of Birmingham (specialization in European and American EDM scenes) and a Faculty of humanities (Charles University) faculty member David Verbuč (specialization in American DIY music venues and scenes). The students will attend lectures, and study and explore Prague's EDM venues, scenes, and communities. They will be required to read a fair amount of academic texts, conduct a mini ethnographic research of Prague EDM scenes, and submit a final paper.
The lectures will focus on theoretical issues and selected case studies dedicated to the following concepts and phenomena: affect theory, ethnography of body, dance, gender, and sexuality in EDM culture, ethnography of EDM audiences and music scenes. Moreover, substantial part of the class-work will concentrate on methodological questions and practicalities of fieldwork research as related to the ethnographic study of EDM scenes. Furthermore, summer school activities will not only include class work, but also interviews with local EDM participants, field trips, a small DJ workshop, and participant-observation at local EDM events (the latter will be attended mostly over the weekend of June 19 and June 20, 2020).