MUS2007 – Gender and Music
Course content
How does gender affect the way we relate to music?
A wide range of musical genres, intellectual traditions and research methods will be explored to address this question in the course.
We will look at the different ways that binary (male-female) ideas of gender are expressed and reinforced in musical communities.
We will also juxtapose traditional ideas of conceiving and staging gender identities with instances where music participants have rebelled against, or at least challenged such norms and practices.
The course will introduce students to the exciting range of actors that they can critically engage with: from unknown Baroque composers and their instruments, to transgender DJs and their music hardware; from students in the school music classroom, to female-only music festivals and the marketing of sexuality in pop music.
Students will learn about an equally large range of conceptual frames for studying gender and music, including, for example, the musical canon and feminist historiography and analysis, queer and postcolonial theories.
In engaging with this rich, complex, and generative field of sources and ideas, this course aims to equip students with a broad conceptual and methodological vocabulary to make sense of the multiple issues at stake in music and gender, and to articulate these effectively.
Learning outcome
On passing this course, students will be able to:
- Critically analyse relationships between gender and music in practice, drawing upon:
- A range of musical genres and practices.
- Examples from academic literature, primary sources, and students’ own experiences.
2. Describe and evaluate the broad history and development of gender in music practice and theory, including:
- How these histories manifest in past and present musical practices.
- The challenges to, and subversion of gender norms by past and current music participants.
3. Outline and participate in current debates, explain different theoretical and academic positions, concepts, and methodologies relevant to music and gender research, in forms such as:
- A newspaper opinion piece
- An academic essay
- An oral presentation and discussion.
Overlapping courses
- 10 credits overlap with MUS4007 – Gender and Music.
Teaching
- 8 double lectures.
- 12 hours of seminars, which will include readings from the curriculum, workshopping research and writing techniques.
- 1 qualification assessment consisting of 1 short op-ed piece (for e.g. a newspaper, blog).
Examination
Term paper (10 pages, each containing approx. 2.300 characters, spaces not included).
The assessment criteria for MUS2007 can be found here.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.