Border Listening: Ethnography and Performance Beyond Nation

Drawing inspiration from research at the intersection of sound studies, ethnomusicology and anthropology, Rachel Harris considers how listening at the borders can inform our ethnographic and creative practice.

In the lecture she will reflect on interviews with Uyghur exile Sufis, and a maqām-based musical collaboration at SOAS. What kinds of affective re-orientation are required by these Sufi exiles’ insistence on listening as sohbet / companionship? How might a focus on the micro-details of puraq / style shift our understanding of modal practice? If the interviews with exiles demand a particular embodied ethics of attention, musical collaborations across borders require another particular set of listening techniques and orientations, but they are both forged in embodied and dialogic practice. The lecture will showcase some of the creative initiatives underway within the Maqām Beyond Nation project, with live music by Ozan Baysal and Shohret Nur.

Rachel Harris teaches ethnomusicology at SOAS, University of London. Her research focuses on musical life in China and Central Asia, especially religious and expressive culture among the Uyghurs, heritage and cultural policy in China. Her latest book Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam (Indiana University Press 2020) won the 2022 BFE book prize. Her research projects include Sounding Islam in China, and a British Academy Sustainable Development Project to revitalise Uyghur cultural heritage in Kazakhstan. She currently leads Maqām Beyond Nation, working with a team of musicians and researchers on musical border crossings across Central Asia and the Middle East.

Ozan Baysal completed his Ph.D. at Istanbul Technical University, Centre for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM) and postdoctoral research at SOAS as a visiting scholar. Ozan’s music is a synthesis of traditional Anatolian bağlama repertoire and jazz. He has performed throughout Europe and the USA, including the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Nuoro Jazz Festival, Making Tracks, and OneBeat Music Exchange.

Shohret Nur is a Research Assistant at SOAS. He is a prize-winning performer, trained in the Xinjiang Arts Institute and Istanbul Minar University, specialising in Uyghur rawap and dutar plucked lutes. He is also a teacher, composer, and musical analyst with a particular focus on the Uyghur Twelve Muqam repertoire.

Image credit: Ozan Baysal