UC Press Blog

The story of Ludwig van Beethoven’s confronting his growing deafness as he continued to compose and conduct has always provided special inspiration for me that transcends his music. Whenever I listen to his compositions, I hear more than notes exquisitely written and performed. I hear the voice of a fellow human being who is overcoming trauma, adversity and fear through his art, whispering to me not to despair, but like him, to make the most of what I have while I can in my own way.

Blacksound explores the sonic history of blackface minstrelsy (the first original form of American popular music) and the racial foundations of American musical culture from the early 1800s through the turn of the twentieth century. With this namesake book, Matthew D. Morrison develops the concept o

By Lawrence Kramer, author of Music and the Forms of LifeThe concept of life has a long and complicated history, but its modern version can be said to date to the late seventeenth century. The science of the time launched a concerted effort to discover what made living bodies, particularly human

By Kaveh Askari, author of Relaying Cinema in Midcentury Iran: Material Cultures in TransitRelaying Cinema in Midcentury Iran investigates how the cultural translation of cinema has been shaped by the physical translation of its ephemera. I examine film circulation and its effect on Iranian

Resonance is delighted to be welcoming three new associate editors to the journal's editorial team. This is the first of a series of blog interviews with the new associate editors. In this inaugural post, Resonance Co-Editor Jay Needham interviews incoming Associate Editor Josh Shepperd. Shepperd is

By Lawrence Kramer, author of The Hum of the World: A Philosophy of ListeningSound in recent years has escaped its traditionally subordinate relationship to sight and become the object of widespread interest. Sound Studies is a flourishing field. But much of the work done under this rubric has c

The past year was marked by upheaval and activism. And it was marked by sound. From our collectively heightened awareness of birdsong to chants calling for abolition, 2020 was a year defined by aural crisis and calls for justice. A special issue of Resonance, "The Soundwork of Media Activism," draws

Judy Dunaway is an artist and educator whose new article, “The Forgotten 1979 Museum of Modern Art Sound Art Exhibition” was featured in the debut edition of Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture. She is known for performance-based multimedia exhibitions using balloons as sound conduits, and s

Reels of tapes containing sound effects that Thomas Lopez recorded in Morocco. Photo taken in the ZBS studio, August 2018.Jacob Smith's "Travels with Jack: ZBS's Post-Network Radio Adventure" was published in the inaugural issue of Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture. The article, which

We are pleased to be able to announce the publication of the first issue of Resonance: the Journal of Sound and Culture. We invite you to read the inaugural issue for free for a limited time.Resonance is an interdisciplinary, international peer reviewed journal that features research and wri