Season 3, Episode 5

What does it mean to search for music-making in the archives of slavery?  Maria Ryan studies African-descended musicians and listeners in the colonial Caribbean, and her research is fraught with ethical and logistical challenges. A conversation about fully imagining the lives of enslaved musicians,  when the evidence of those lives is   documented almost entirely by their oppressors.

Maria Ryan is assistant professor of musicology at Florida State University’s College of Music.

If you’re interested in learning more about Professor Ryan’s scholarship, check out:

• An article on enslaved parishioners in 1820s Jamaica, in the Journal of the Society for American Music
• An article on research in the archives of slavery in the Journal of the American Musicological Society

Sound Expertise is hosted by Will Robin (@seatedovation), and produced by D. Edward Davis (@warmsilence). Please subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and/or Spotify. Questions or comments? Email soundexpertise00 @ gmail

A written transcript of this episode is available here; thanks to Andrew Dell’Antonio for volunteering to prepare transcripts for the show!