Consider Latin American music within a broad cultural and historical framework. Latin American musical practices are explored illustrating the many ways that aesthetics and society are embodied in and negotiated through performance. Concepts include diaspora, colonialism, mestizaje, hybridity, migration and globalization.

Introduction to the music of Andean countries including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. Explores the role music plays in shaping historical and modern Andean societies, as well as how music comments upon national culture, society, and politics, with particular attention to the ways in which musicians and musical movements continue to influence Andean societies. Subjects include pre-Columbian and colonial music making; music representative of the tripartite indigenous, African, and Iberian heritage of Andean countries; aesthetics, identity, and musical expression; ritual, religion, and the politics of musical performance.