Sounding Traditions of Inuit Cosmopolitanism in ‘Flying Wild Alaska’: Jessica Bissett Perea, Music Studies Colloquium, Ethnomusicology

Performing Arts - Music | September 14 | 4:40-6 p.m. | 128 Morrison Hall

Featured Speaker: Jessica Bissett Perea, President's Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Music, UC Berkeley

Sponsors: Department of Music, Center for Research on Native American Issues, Department of Ethnic Studies

In this talk Bissett Perea explores circuits of Inuit cosmopolitanism as represented through the soundscapes and imagery of the Discovery Channel’s documentary-style reality television series “Flying Wild Alaska,” (2011-2012). When compared to its counterparts (e.g. “Deadliest Catch,” “Ice Road Truckers,” and “Gold Rush: Alaska”), “Flying Wild Alaska” is notable for portraying the diversity and mobility of Alaska Native and Inuit cultures, in part through the show’s use of contemporary Inuit music as a backdrop to portrayals of modern life in the arctic. From professionalized traditional drumsongs to funk- and jazz-influenced “Inuit World Music,” my musicocultural analysis will illuminate the longer history of Inuit cosmopolitanism throughout the circumpolar region and make audible the literal and figurative histories of Native migration between rural and urban spaces.

About the speaker:
Jessica Bissett Perea is an enrolled member of the Knik Tribe and a shareholder in Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI). A first-generation college graduate, Jessica holds a PhD in Musicology from UCLA. She specializes in North American music history from 1850 to present day, with a focus on traditional and contemporary Alaska Native and Circumpolar Inuit performing arts, modern jazz cultures, and the histories of traditional musics in the United States (including folk, popular, and classical). Her research is broadly concerned with issues of difference in musical life, e.g. racial and gendered difference, as well as relationships between music and politics. Since January 2010 Jessica has been on the faculty San Francisco State University's Department of American Indian Studies, College of Ethnic Studies, where she has developed courses on Native American women studies, Alaska Native cultural history, and Inuit music studies.

Tickets not required

Refreshments: Reception follows colloquium

Event Contact: 510-642-2678