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Project short description

This project is based on my ongoing PhD ethnomusicological research on Karen refugees along the Thai-Burmese border. The sensory ethnography consists of an ethnographic film as a visual ethnography and soundscape compositions as a sound ethnography, which I could present.

Project long description

The Karen are an ethnic minority group primarily based in Burma; many have been persecuted by the Burmese military junta for several decades and have migrated to border areas of Thailand. I am studying Karen music through the theoretical lenses of identity, diaspora, and war, specifically investigating how it shapes and expresses Karen ethnic identity, constructs cultural memory, and engages with themes of war, trauma, and resilience. While studying Karen traditional music, I primarily focus on Karen youth rap.

This research produces a multi-sensory ethnography: an ethnographic film and soundscape compositions. I am currently in the field collecting footage and experimenting with various ways of editing.The film will center on oral stories and Karen music documentation, such as incorporating eight to ten interwoven individual narratives interspersed with related Karen music videos. These narratives, based on participant interviews, explore the senses of the Karen people (hearing, vision, imagination, memory, fear, and hope).

The sound ethnography will incorporate field recordings of Karen music, environmental sounds, and self-reflexive narratives to explore the relationship between sound, environment, senses of place, and researcher's reflexivity.

In general, this ongoing project focuses on multi-sensory representation, oral stories, and music documentation of the Karen refugees along the border.