Maria Mendonça is an ethnomusicologist who teaches in the music and anthropology departments at Kenyon. Her research interests include Indonesian music (gamelan traditions of Java and Bali, and their circulation outside Indonesia), music and prisons, ethnomusicology and film, and ethnomusicology and the public sector. She also directs the Sundanese gamelan degung ensemble at Kenyon.
Maria Mendonça has worked as an ethnomusicologist in a variety of settings in the United Kingdom and United States. These include working an Ethnomusicology Editor for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, teaching Javanese gamelan for several British universities and conservatories, and leading projects involving gamelan and music education for a range of British arts institutions including the South Bank Centre, London; BBC Symphony Orchestra; and St David's Hall, Cardiff. She established the Gamelan Education program in the Hallé Orchestra, Manchester, from 1993-95.
Maria Mendonça has performed…
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Maria Mendonça is an ethnomusicologist who teaches in the music and anthropology departments at Kenyon. Her research interests include Indonesian music (gamelan traditions of Java and Bali, and their circulation outside Indonesia), music and prisons, ethnomusicology and film, and ethnomusicology and the public sector. She also directs the Sundanese gamelan degung ensemble at Kenyon.
Maria Mendonça has worked as an ethnomusicologist in a variety of settings in the United Kingdom and United States. These include working an Ethnomusicology Editor for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, teaching Javanese gamelan for several British universities and conservatories, and leading projects involving gamelan and music education for a range of British arts institutions including the South Bank Centre, London; BBC Symphony Orchestra; and St David's Hall, Cardiff. She established the Gamelan Education program in the Hallé Orchestra, Manchester, from 1993-95.
Maria Mendonça has performed gamelan with several groups, including Friends of the Gamelan (Chicago), South Bank Gamelan Players (London) and Cardiff Gamelan (Wales, UK), and has also been a gamelan performer in theatre productions for Royal National Theatre, London, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Education
— Doctor of Philosophy from Wesleyan University
— Bachelor of Arts from University of York, UK
— Master of Arts from Wesleyan University
Courses Recently Taught
ANTH 113
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 113
This course introduces students to the discipline that studies and compares cultures. Students will learn about the main concepts used in anthropology and how anthropologists conduct research, while also discovering how people live in other times and places. Students will learn about theories that provide frameworks for understanding and comparing cultures. Ethnographic descriptions of life in particular places give students factual materials with which to apply and critique such theories. Through this introduction to the study of culture in general, and an exposure to specific cultures, students inevitably come to re-examine some of the premises of their own culture. This foundation course is required for upper-level work in cultural anthropology courses. Offered every semester.
ANTH 206D
Seminar in Ethnomusicology
ANTH 206D
This course is an investigation of the issues, methods and history of the discipline of ethnomusicology. This course will focus on case studies drawn from different music genres and areas of the world that illustrate the complexities of considering music in its cultural contexts. Student work will involve close listening, engagement with cultural theory and practical fieldwork exercises, and will culminate in an individual field research project on a topic related to the course. This course is the same as MUSC 206D. This course must be taken as ANTH 206D to count toward the social science requirement. This counts toward the ethnomusicology requirement for the music major or elective for the minor and also as an upper-level elective for the anthropology major. Prerequisite: MUSC 102, 105 or 107 or ANTH 113. Offered every three out of four years.
ANTH 312D
Music, Film and Culture: Ethnographic Perspectives
ANTH 312D
This seminar will explore the relationship of music and film, with a focus on ethnographic film and ethnographic filmmaking. How does our understanding of music inform our experience of film? How, in turn, does our immersion in film and its conventions inform our understanding of different music? How are such conventions localized and expanded in different cultural settings? How does ethnographic film both react against and make use of other stylistic conventions of filmmaking in achieving its ends? Practical exercises in ethnographic filmmaking (and analysis) during the semester will lead toward ethnographic, historical or analytical projects. This counts as an elective for the music major and minor. This counts toward the upper-level cultural anthropology requirement for the major. This course is the same as MUSC 312D. This course must be taken as ANTH 312D to count toward the social science requirement. Prerequisite: MUSC 102, 105 or 107 or ANTH 113. Offered every other year.
ANTH 493
Individual Study
ANTH 493
The Anthropology Department reserves individual study for those students who are unusually motivated in an area of the field and who we believe are responsible enough to handle the challenge of working independently. Such courses might be research-oriented (e.g., students returning from off-campus study programs with data) but are more commonly reading-oriented courses allowing students to explore in greater depth topics that interest them or that overlap with their major course of study. To arrange for individual study, a student should consult with a faculty member during the semester prior to when the independent work is to be undertaken. The individual-study course may be designed exclusively by the faculty member or it may be designed in consultation with the student. For reading courses, a bibliography is created, and the student reads those works, meeting periodically (weekly or bi-weekly) with the faculty member to discuss them. Faculty directing the individual study will set the terms of course evaluation, which typically involve either a research paper or an extensive annotated bibliography with a short explanatory essay tying the entries together and situating the debates which they represent. Another option is for the student to write one- to two-page assessments of each book or reading at intervals throughout the semester. The faculty member comments on these assessments and may request periodic reassessments. The course culminates with a synthetic paper that pulls together all the readings. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the end of the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of the proposed individual study preferably the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek the departmental approval before the established deadline. This course can count toward the major or minor.
MUSC 206D
Seminar in Ethnomusicology
MUSC 206D
This course is an investigation of the issues, methods and history of the discipline of ethnomusicology. This course will focus on case studies drawn from different music genres and areas of the world that illustrate the complexities of considering music in its cultural contexts. Student work will involve close listening, engagement with cultural theory and practical fieldwork exercises, and will culminate in an individual field research project on a topic related to the course. This course is the same as ANTH 206D. This course must be taken as MUSC 206D to count toward the fine art requirement. This counts toward the ethnomusicology requirement for the music major or elective for the minor and also as an upper-level elective for the anthropology major. Prerequisite: MUSC 102, 105 or 107 or ANTH 113. Offered every three out of four years.
MUSC 312D
Music, Film and Culture: Ethnographic Perspectives
MUSC 312D
This seminar will explore the relationship of music and film, with a focus on ethnographic film and ethnographic film-making. How does our understanding of music inform our experience of film? How, in turn, does our immersion in film and its conventions inform our understanding of different music? How are such conventions localized and expanded in different cultural settings? How does ethnographic film both react against, and make use of, other stylistic conventions of film-making in achieving its ends? Practical exercises in ethnographic film-making (and their analysis) during the semester will lead towards ethnographic, historical or analytical projects. This course is the same as ANTH 312D. This must be taken as MUSC 312D to count towards the fine arts requirement. This counts as an elective for the major and minor. Prerequisite: MUSC 102, 105 or 107 or ANTH 113.
MUSC 485
Asian Music Ensemble
MUSC 485
This course provides ongoing study of the music of the Sundanese gamelan degung, a traditional ensemble incorporating different types of tuned bronze percussion, drums, flutes and vocals. Students will be introduced to basic and advanced instrumental techniques for several individual gamelan instruments and receive coaching in musicianship and ensemble skills. A variety of repertories will be covered. Each semester will culminate in one public performance. No previous musical experience is required. This course can be used to satisfy diversification requirements in anthropology as well as music. This is not a yearlong course and registration is required each semester. Permission of instructor required. No prerequisite.
MUSC 493
Individual Study
MUSC 493
Individual study is available to junior or senior music majors wishing to explore, with a music department faculty member, a topic not normally offered in the curriculum. The student proposes the topic to the faculty member, who then brings the proposal before the department for approval. The department will discuss the feasibility of any proposal. Individual studies supplement the music curriculum and may not be used to satisfy major requirements. Individual studies will earn either 0.25 or 0.50 units. After identifying a faculty member willing to oversee the individual study, the student should work with that professor to develop a short (one-page) proposal that will be shared with the department for approval. The proposal should articulate the nature of the proposed study; present planned readings, assignments and other work; and describe how or what in the proposed study will be assessed at the end of the semester. Meeting schedules may vary, but at a minimum the department expects that students will meet once per week with the faculty member. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the end of the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of the proposed individual study preferably the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek departmental approval before the established deadline.