Radio Sawa and American Musical Diplomacy in the Middle East
642 Greene Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11221
Ellie Hisama
In 2002 the Bush administration replaced the Voice of America’s Arabic-language service with a new station called _Radio Sawa_, mixing Arabic news and music with American pop. Employing different vantage points for each chapter, I draw a picture of Radio Sawa that includes its musical content, historical background, and the set of American assumptions that condition them. Employing documents, recordings, and interviews from my research in Syria and Lebanon, I address the various contexts in which the station is defined locally, as well as reactions from its listeners.
Columbia University - Instructor
“Masterpieces of Western Music”, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2011
“Sonic Geography of Hip-Hop”, Summer 2009 (new course)
Columbia University - Teaching Assistant
“Masterpieces of Western Music”, Spring 2008
“Listening to Hip-hop”, Fall 2007
Columbia School of Continuing Education - High School Study Abroad Program
“Culture and History: Understanding the Arab World” Summer 2010 (guest lecturer), 2011-2012 (instructor)
PUBLICATIONS
“American Musical Diplomacy in the Shifting Radioscape of Syria’s Arab Spring” in Soundtrack to Conflict: The Role of Music in Radio Broadcasting in Wartime and Conflict Situations (Olms Verlag; Göttingen, Germany) forthcoming
“Desire and the Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger.” American Music Review (Fall 2010):1, 3, 12-14 http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/isam/publications/american_music_revie...
Review of The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop, and Why it Matters by Tricia Rose. Current Musicology 89 (Spring 2010): 95-102, 143.
Entries on “Jeff Chang,” “Dream Hampton,” “Miles Marshall Lewis,” and “Toure.” in
The Grove Dictionary of American Music and Musicians, 2nd edition (forthcoming).
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS AND GUEST LECTURES
“American and Syrian State Sponsored Radio and the Integration of American Pop Music into Syrian Musical Genres”
Society for American Music, national meeting
Charlotte, NC, March, 2012
“Radio Sawa and American Musical Diplomacy”
American Musicological Society, national meeting
San Francisco, CA November, 2011
“Sounding American: Radio Sawa’s Musical Diplomacy in the Middle Eastern Radioscape”
Soundtrack of Conflict: The Role of Music in Radio Broadcasts in Wartime and Conflict Situations. Conference hosted the research group “Music, Conflict and the State.”
Göttingen, Germany September, 2011
“Maqam and the Takht Ensemble,” Asian Music Humanities, Department of Music, Columbia University, October 2010
“Sound of the Arab World,” Columbia University High School Program. Madaba, Jordan, King’s Academy, July 2010
“Radio and the Arab World,” Asian Music Humanities, Department of Music, Columbia University, November 2009
Respondent to Amy Beal’s talk entitled “The Music of Carla Bley” Columbia University Music Colloquium Series, October 2009
“Radio Sawa and the Sound of Consumer Diplomacy,” annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Wesleyan University, October 2008
Respondent to Brent Hayes Edwards’ talk entitled “The Long Tongues of Julius Hemphill” Columbia University Music Colloquium Series, April 2007
“Creating a Jazz Portrait of Femininity,” Feminist Theory and Music, McGill University, Montreal, June 2007
“Creating a Jazz Portrait of Femininity,” CUNY Graduate Students in Music conference, New York, April 2006
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (Syrian Arabic), Columbia University, 2009; Research Grant for Study in Lebanon/Syria, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, Columbia University, 2009; Columbia GSAS Summer Teaching Scholar, 2009; American Institute for Yemeni Studies (AIYS) Fellowship, 2007; Columbia University Faculty Fellowship, 2006-2010; Robert E. Gilleece Fellowship (CUNY Graduate Center), 2004-2006; Peter Rotter Essay Prize for Best Undergraduate Writing in the Humanities, UCLA, 2003