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The Symposium for Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity is traditionally a single-day event that is designed to showcase undergraduate and graduate student work. Previously known as the Symposium for Research and Scholarship, the Symposium was establis...
Show moreThe Symposium for Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity is traditionally a single-day event that is designed to showcase undergraduate and graduate student work. Previously known as the Symposium for Research and Scholarship, the Symposium was established in 2001 by Dr. Patrick Burkhart.
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Music therapy settings are often marked by multiple power hierarchies, in which music therapists hold privileged identities in areas such as race, disability, language, and class in relation to clients who may carry multiple oppressed identities. In international ser...
Show moreMusic therapy settings are often marked by multiple power hierarchies, in which music therapists hold privileged identities in areas such as race, disability, language, and class in relation to clients who may carry multiple oppressed identities. In international service-learning settings, these dualities can be even more pronounced. As international service-learning projects market themselves to young music therapists and students, they emphasize these projects’ ability to accelerate music therapists’ advancement in the profession. However, analysis of visual and written discourse can reveal subtler and more insidious consequences of such projects, particularly in the ways they uphold colonial and ableist paradigms. In this paper, I will outline some foundational understandings regarding Indigenous studies, Disability studies, “voluntourism,” and the relevance of representation. I will then analyze publicly available photos and text from four international music therapy service-learning projects, using Actor-Network Theory to identify colonial and ableist themes. The analyses will demonstrate that these experiences align and prepare young music therapists for broader music therapy practice mainly by reinforcing music therapy’s deeply colonial and ableist foundations. Music therapy identity in these images is white, settler, nondisabled, and aligned with Western music and culture; client identity is Indigenous, colonized, Disabled, and represented without markers of local cultural resources. Beyond identity, these images reveal relational patterns that align with colonial and ableist tropes. As represented in these images and texts, music therapists purportedly give, help, act, distribute, teach, and transform, whereas clients receive, wait, accept, assimilate, and “overcome.” The representations are not merely neutral agents that reveal existing dynamics; they also perpetuate problematic notions of music therapy as an assimilative and charitable agent, enacted by active “helpers” upon passive “sufferers.” They both accentuate and perpetuate assumptions of Black and colonized people as needy or deficient, positioning Western music therapists conversely as helpful and sufficient. In analyzing and interpreting these representations, I will approach the following questions: How much does music therapist identity depend on the construction of a needy other? In representing ourselves as helpers, how do music therapists unwittingly create or emphasize deficits in clients?
Show less2021
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Slippery Rock University in the Sixties Oral History CollectionAudio recording of the interview of Robert Aebersold on May 28, 1991.
1991
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ROCKvoices Oral History ProjectAudio recording of the interview of Robert Aebersold conducted on October 21, 2008.
2008
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Slippery Rock University in the Sixties Oral History CollectionTranscript of the interview of Robert Aebersold on May 28, 1991.
1991
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ROCKvoices Oral History ProjectTranscript of the interview of Robert Aebersold conducted on October 21, 2008.
2008
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ROCKvoices Oral History ProjectVideo clip from the the interview of Robert Aebersold conducted on October 21, 2008.
2008
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ROCKvoices Oral History ProjectAudio recording of the interview of Nora Ambrosio conducted on March 31, 2023.
2023
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ROCKvoices Oral History ProjectTranscript of the interview of Nora Ambrosio conducted on March 31, 2023.
2023
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ROCKvoices Oral History ProjectVideo clip from the interview of Nora Ambrosio conducted on March 31, 2023.
2023
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Slippery Rock University Centennial Oral History CollectionAudio recording of the interview of Hazel Armstrong on August 3, 1988.
1988
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ROCKvoices Oral History ProjectAudio recording of the interview of Eliott Baker conducted on November 20, 2008.
2008
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ROCKvoices Oral History ProjectTranscript of the interview of Eliott Baker conducted on November 20, 2008.
2008
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ROCKvoices Oral History ProjectVideo clip from the interview of Eliott Baker conducted on November 20, 2008.
2008
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A collection of audio recordings and transcripts from the Class project for David Dixon's Pennsylvania History class in 1994 that consits of interviews with baseball players, coaches, sports casters, PR managers.
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ROCKvoices Oral History ProjectAudio recording of the interview of Bill Behre conducted on June 15, 2023.
2023