Study music at ifeas

The Department of Anthropology and African Studies (ifeas) offers regular classes on African music and the anthropology of music/ethnomusicology on both, BA and MA levels. Subjects change, but generally include classes on African music and musicians, on the history and ethnography of African music, as well as on histories and theories of anthropological/ethnomusicological engagements with music and sound, all with a strong focus on global processes of cultural exchange. Special sessions on music and sound are also included in other classes with theoretical or regional orientation, with topics ranging from ‘Anthropology of Ritual and Performance’ or ‘The Anthropology of Expressive Culture’ to explorations of ‘The Mande World’ or ‘Cuba and the Black Atlantic’. We encourage and enjoy supervising masters’ degree research projects on all kinds of subjects related to music and sound.

>> LINK ifeas
Study music anthropologically
In contrast to other institutions in Germany, we offer to study music and sound in an anthropological, not (ethno)musicological framework. Therefore, the focus of our program is the study of society and culture in and through music, even though we give special attention to the music and its aesthetic experience. Basically, our aim is to better understand the conditio humana by looking at music and “musicking” in a way as all-encompassing as possible, which includes processes of performing, listening or dancing as well as producing or distributing music in technological environments or trying to understand music’s impacts on societies at large.
Master’s program on “Popular Musics of the World”
Currently, we are about to develop an interdisciplinary master’s program on “Popular Musics of the World”. Thanks to a framework agreement with the Goethe University Frankfurt/Main (called “Rhine-Main-Universities”, short RMU), it is possible to include classes taught there into our curriculum. So, if you are thinking about studying anthropology at the ifeas with a focus on music or sound, know that you can always integrate classes taught by colleagues in musicology or ethnomusicology at Frankfurt/Main or Mainz.

>> LINK Goethe University Frankfurt/Main

>> LINK Musicology University Mainz