NOTES PERTAINING TO PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC.
Text of Note
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-321-03367-0
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
Ph.D.
Discipline of degree
Music
Body granting the degree
The University of Chicago
Text preceding or following the note
2014
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
In contemporary debates concerning immigration, nationhood, and religion in Germany, immigrants from Turkey are frequently portrayed as the most problematic of immigrant groups in Germany, with their religious identities as Muslims often cited as a barrier to integration. In my dissertation I offer a critique of this discourse of marginalization through an ethnographic study of Turkish German musicians and music institutions in contemporary Berlin. I consider several ways in which these musicians and music institutions have intervened in public space to offer new perspectives on the political debates about immigration and religion currently gripping Germany. Drawing upon interviews with musicians and participant observation at concerts and music festivals, I consider the ways in which musical performance acts as a medium by which immigrants from Turkey shape and reflect upon their cultural, ethnic, and religious identifications in Germany. I argue that for musicians in Berlin's Turkish and Anatolian diasporas, music is a significant medium not only for shaping a new understanding of a transnational cultural identity, but also for intervening creatively to shape public opinion about cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity in contemporary Germany. I describe these musical interventions as a form of 'sonic citizenship,' a term that I define as a form of political engagement that employs sound, such as musical performance or sonorous ritual, to craft public interventions in an environment characterized by unequal access to political and social power.
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Music; European Studies; Social psychology
UNCONTROLLED SUBJECT TERMS
Subject Term
Social sciences;Communication and the arts;Psychology;Berlin;Diaspora;Ethnomusicology;Germany;Transnationalism;Turkey