Abstracts for November 7, 2003

Prof. Derek Vaillant, Listening to Musical Progressivism: Music at Chicago's Hull House, 1889-1919

 

Between 1873 and 1935, reformers in Chicago used the power of music to unify the diverse peoples of the metropolis. These musical progressives emphasized the capacity of music to transcend differences among various groups. For residents with ideas about music as a tool of self-determination, musical progressivism could be problematic as well as empowering. The resulting struggles and negotiations between reformers and residents transformed the public culture of Chicago. Through his innovative examination of the role of music in the history of progressivism, Derek Vaillant offers a new perspective on the cultural politics of music and American society.

Derek W. Vaillant is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and a Faculty Associate in the Program in American Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the social and cultural history of media, communication practices, and popular culture in the late nineteenth- and twentieth-century U.S.