Southeast
Asia Studies at Yale
South
Asian Studies at Yale
Yale
Gamelan
Sarah
Weiss
Specializations: Southeast and East Asian performance; hybridity
and postcoloniality; aesthetics; gender studies; theater studies; critical
theory; modal music and improvisation
Bio: Sarah Weiss holds a Bachelor
of Arts in Music from University of Rochester/Eastman School of Music
and a Ph.D. in musicology from New York University. She has taught in
the Departments of Music at the University of Sydney and the University
of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. She was a Visiting Professor in the Department
of Music at Harvard University, 2004-05. Sarah Weiss began her appointment
in the Department of Music at Yale University in July of 2005.
Weiss has recently begun a project on Robert Wilson and Rhoda Grauer's
production of the Bugis epic I La Galigo. She carried out fieldwork
for this project in Jakarta, South Sulawesi, and Bali in 2006. Other on-going
work includes a study of rasa in Indonesia and India; a long-term
comparative project on court music cultures in postcolonial Southeast
Asia; and a project on gender representation in Asian, music-based theatre
forms.
After a long search, Weiss has found a space to house Yale's new Central
Javanese Gamelan. The ensemble arrived during the Fall 06 semester and
rehearsals began in Spring 07. A course entitled 'Javanese Gamelan Performance'
(MUSI 225) was offered for the first time in the Spring 07 semester. Students
from that course form the core of the performing ensemble that is also
open to other members of the Yale/New Haven community. See www.yale.edu/seas/yalegamelan
for information, photos and schedules.
Over the next five years Weiss plans to develop Vietnamese and other Southeast
Asian performance opportunities for students at Yale. Sarah Weiss is a
member of both the Council for Southeast Asia and the Council for South
Asia. She is also an active member on the Council of the Women's Faculty
Forum.
Recent publications:
(in press) Review Essay: Getting Beyond Java: New Studies in Indonesian
Music. Ethnomusicology 51/1 (winter 2007, 5000 words)
(in press) Literature and Art: World Music (Overview). In Encyclopedia
of Women and Islamic Cultures, vol 5. (6000 words)
2006 Listening to an Earlier Java. Aesthetics, Gender, and the Music
of Wayang in Central Java. Leiden (KITLV Press).
http://www.kitlv.nl/cgi-bin/kitlv/web_store/web_store.cgi?page=asia-listening.html
2006 Instructor's Guide. For
Soundscapes, by Kay Shelemay 2nd Edition (WW Norton).
2005 Review: Performing Ethnomusicology: Teaching and Representation
in World Music Ensembles, edited Ted Solís. Berkeley, Los Angeles
and London: University of California Press, 2004 in Ethnomusicology 49/3.
2003 Kothong Nanging Kebak Empty yet Full: Some Thoughts on Embodiment and Aesthetics in Javanese Performance. Asian Music 34/2, 21-49.
2002 Gender(ed) Aesthetics: Domains of Knowledge and "Inherent" Dichotomies in Central Javanese Wayang Accompaniment. In Puppet Theatre In Contemporary Indonesia: New Approaches to Javanese Wayang, edited by Jan Mrazak. Ann Arbor: University of Michgan Press, 286-304.
Recent Courses:
Permeable Boundaries: Music Cultures in Contact (Music 711 - Fall 2005);
Theatre and Dance in Contemporary Asia (Music 147 - Fall 2005); Shadows,
Gongs and Punk: Music in Contemporary Southeast Asia (Music 263 - Spring
2006); Gendering Musical Performance (Music 420 - Spring 2006/Spring 2007);
Music Cultures of the World (Music 150 - Fall 06); World Music Theories:
Practice and Aesthetics (Music 376 - Fall 06); Javanese Gamelan Performance
(Music 225 - Spring 07).
Grants and Awards:
A. Whitney Griswold Faculty Research Grant, Yale University, for research
in Java and Sulawesi (2006); UNC East and Southeast Asian Studies Committee
Course Development Grant (2003); Junior Faculty Development Award, UNC-Chapel
Hill (2000); Dean's Award for Best Ph.D. Dissertation in the Humanities,
New York University (1998); New York University Dean's Dissertation Award
(1993); Seeger Prize Committee Honorary Mention (1992); Asian Cultural
Council dissertation research grant (1991).
Contact
Information:
e-mail: s.weiss@yale.edu
Department of Music
P.O. Box 208310
New Haven, CT 06520-8310
Campus:
143 Elm Street
Tel: (203) 432-2991
Fax: (203) 432-2983