Music in Israel | UC Berkeley | Fall 2013

IN SEARCH OF JEWISH CULTURAL DIVERSITY CLASS FIELDWORK IN BERKELEY SYNAGOGUES

Guidelines for a class debriefing session after two fieldtrips in Berkeley during the Sukkot Festival. 1. Setting - Where (location, real estate, interiors) - How (to get there, to get inside) - Who (genders, ages, attires) - Languages - Atmosphere & relationship with locals (welcoming, unwelcoming, indifferent...) 2. Music & Sound - Voices: gender, style - Instrumentation - Melodies - Modes - Rhythm (beat and flowing rhythm) - Texts 3. Body language(s) 4. Food 5. Main Topics / Big(ger) Pictures - The "I" in the fieldwork (individual perspectives, emotions, etc.) - The "We" in the fieldwork (group visits) - Comparative approaches to fieldwork (visiting more than one site) - A sense of otherness - How it felt to be there with other students - The original assignment: Unity / Diversity - Moving towards "Music in Israel" - (A clarification :: Jewish / Israeli) - Any other topics WORKFLOW 1. Intro (Francesco Spagnolo) 2. Focus Groups: Divide in small groups (of 3) and spend less than 10 minutes going over items 1-4 3. Dork Shorts: Sit in a large circle; Go around, but really fast, sharing a thought for each of the topics above 4. Introduce topics in item 5 (Francesco) 5. Conclusions: where do we go from here? what types of knowledge were acquired?