This is the
personal-ish website of David Dennen.
Who am I?
I am currently a graduate
student (PhD candidate) at the University of California,
Davis. My
official field of study is ethnomusicology. Overall, however, music is
only a small—but important—component of what I do. My interests
somewhat more broadly defined relate to processes and practices of
(inter)cultural transmission and historical shifts and interactions
between various "epistemes." My work tends to be situated somewhere
between ethnography, historiography, and philosophy.
What kinds of stuff do I study?
- Culture and society in Odisha (India), especially the
domain of
Odissi music.
- Unclassifiable (ambient, experimental, electroacoustic, and
thereabouts)
mid-20th to
early-21st century music, especially that of Jon Hassell.
- The origins and dispersions of "modern dance."
- Cultural "theft" and technology.
- Post-WWII philosophy, especially Adorno and Levinas.
I am also a musician, mainly of the North Indian and Odissi-style
flute, but I also play some other things. I was heavily involved in
painting and
photography in the olden days, and occasionally take up those
activities in the present.
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