BGSU researcher to present findings on how music, performance shape Arab American communities

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — A Bowling Green State University researcher will present his findings titled “Music, Memory and Change in Arab America," which looks at how music and performance shape the identity of Arab American communities. The free community conversation starts at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 15, via Zoom. Registration is required.

Dr. Christopher Witulski, assistant teaching professor of Ethnomusicology in the College of Musical Arts, regularly studies how music plays a unique and powerful role in forming and expressing cultural identity, especially in immigrant communities. In his latest research, Witulski provides a space for the Arab American community to share its voice and experience.

Bringing together humanities and arts scholars, as well as representatives from cultural and religious organizations, Witulski creates a space for Ohio’s diverse communities to encounter, engage and reflect on the role music plays in events, memories and identities. By considering a variety of relationships, Witulski explores the ways in which communities embed music with ideas and ideologies of authenticity, heritage, nostalgia, identity and meaning.

Witulski's research is part of a fellowship with the University's interdisciplinary public humanities center, the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society (ICS). Founded in 1996, ICS delivers programs and initiatives that empower people and communities to leverage the strengths of the humanities to serve the public good.