Course SAMM

From January 2024 on, a course will be given at the Department of Art, Music and Theatre Sciences (Faculty of Arts & Philosophy, Ghent University) on: 

Social Action & Music-Making (SAMM)

This course unit will be set up in the context of the Academic Chair Jonet and Centre on Social Action and Music Making (CESAMM).

Chair holder Prof Dr Lukas Pairon will provide the main part of this training course, in a close consultation and collaboration with Dr An de Bisschop (Ghent University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Arts) and Prof Dr Luc Nijs (Ghent University & University of Luxemburg).

The aim of the training component is to study the role music can play in social work and community work. The course provides a theoretical foundation for the study of music and social processes, drawn from music sociology and music anthropology, combined with the study of the basics of social action.

The foundation of the course consists of the history of social action and music and the theoretical models for the study of diversity, decolonisation, welfare, inequality, injustice and poverty.

The curriculum of 10 lessons will be divided into six lessons on theory, and four practical exercises or group discussions. For this aspect, the training will call on an extensive network of guest speakers, all of whom have practical experience.

The training component aims to capitalise on diversity. The programmes and cases studied are chosen from a global perspective. Current critical issues, such as post-colonialism, injustice, poverty, gender inequality will be addressed. 

The programme is open to students from diverse backgrounds: students from the musicology and theatre studies major, music students from the School of Arts and of the Social Work Department of the Ghent University of Applied Sciences and Arts, as well as Erasmus students.

The course is compulsory for the music major and is planned in Bachelor III.

The course SAMM will nevertheless also be open to Ghent University students from different disciplines (anthropology, sociology, psychology, social and political sciences, pedagogy) as well as students from the School of Arts and Social Work Department of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

In the music major, the course SAMM brings a new focus to the existing programme. The existing duality between historical musicology and systematic musicology is complemented by this course unit which connects the two specialisms already present. Student evaluation will be based on them showing a strong interest in social and political issues related to music.

Certain discussions with guest speakers can be filmed and made available through the CESAMM website.

Evaluation is done on the basis of active participation in the course and on a paper on a specific topic related to the issues discussed.

The language of instruction is Dutch and English.

Here you can find a bibliography with suggested writings for scholars and practitioners working on projects in this field.