Letter from the Editor

Jesse Freedman

This is my first issue serving in the role as Editor of SEM Student News and I am excited for the opportunity to introduce these articles. We initially came up with the idea for “The Voice Issue” last year at a time when many of us were feeling both physically and vocally disconnected. Now, nearly one year and two distinct waves of COVID-19 later, many of us are beginning to tentatively step outside and participate in—what are at least for me—wonderfully awkward and out-of-practice exchanges of voice. Personally, after two years of quiet, masked, and other mediated expressions of vocality, I am thinking quite a bit about my own vocal continuity, development, and change. Working on these articles and with their respective authors over the past several weeks has helped me to reflect on these changes in my voice, from where and to whom they are directed, and their connection to the body from which they emanate. The articles within deal with a range of themes such as silence and silencing, representation, and vocal labor. I hope that these short pieces stimulate new discussions as many of us step back outside and begin the process of re-learning and re-thinking our vocal connection with the world.        

For our “Dear SEM” column, we asked several established scholars to think about changes to their relationship with voice, both in their research and their teaching, over the course of the pandemic. Dr. Nina Sun Eidsheim introduces the idea of “digital aural redlining” and calls for us to exercise vigilance when thinking about how digital technologies render the voices of minorities either silent or hyperaudible. Dr. Eve McPherson talks about her own personal “vocal displacement” in both teaching and her private singing life, and how this has caused her to rethink the ways her voice and those of others intersect in the world. Lastly, Dr. Katherine Meizel describes both the danger and possibility of vocal practice and how new forms of vocal activity developed during the pandemic might extend into the future.

Ezgi Benli-Garcia draws on ethnographic work and her own vocal memories to reflect on how the Alevi community in Turkey communicates their identity through voice. Shuang Wang describes how the limitations of early recording technology in Shanghai in the first half of the twentieth century contribute to contemporary understanding and cultural representations inspired by this era. Reflecting on gendered dynamics in langgam Jawa repertoire in contemporary Indonesia, Hannah Standiford offers an important consideration of the ways that women’s vocal labor mediates the space between regional and national identity. Charlotte Schuitenmaker’s piece describes the transnational impact of Indigenous hip-hop artists and their relationship to the Black Lives Matter movements between the United States and Australia.

We also received submissions from current and former staff of SEMSN and both works approach issues of silence, access, and exchange in different ways. Our staff contributor, Javier Rivas, offers a valuable challenge to assumptions about the dynamics of vocal interaction in academic spaces. He presents the idea of the “polyvocal classroom” to combat vocal and linguistic hegemony in many western classrooms and cultivate equity among people whose voices and languages are often left out of more direct forms of vocal participation. Lastly, our editor emerita, Eugenia Siegel Conte, reflects on her work with the activist choir Voices 21C, and describes her personal experience attempting to understand her own personal circumstances of vocal silencing through an artistic project drawing on the work of choral practitioners in prisons.

It has been an exciting process to work on this issue and I am extremely grateful for the dedicated work of the editorial staff, researcher team, and the contributors. As we enter a new wave of vocal hopes and possibilities, and as we all work to stand vigilant against vocal silencing and oppression, I hope that this issue offers new and critical considerations for the difficult and imperfect work of thinking through, around, and with our voices.