Home > Events > Memory, Imagination, and Roots in the Music and Literature of Syrian-Lebanese Immigrants and their Descendants in Brazil

Memory, Imagination, and Roots in the Music and Literature of Syrian-Lebanese Immigrants and their Descendants in Brazil

A lecture by A.J. Racy, UCLA and Robert Moser, University of Georgia

Friday, March 05, 2010
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
352 Haines Hall
UCLA

Dr. A. J. Racy is a performer, composer and Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California at Los Angeles. Born in Lebanon, he comes from a well-known family of artists, scholars, and academicians. Racy is internationally recognized for his extraordinary musicianship and his numerous publications, including his award-winning book, Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Tarab (Cambridge University Press, 2003). He is a master of many traditional instruments, particularly the nay, a reed-flute, and the buzuq, a long-necked fretted lute. He has performed extensively in Lebanon and has appeared in major U.S. theaters, such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Hollywood Bowl and at international venues, including the Beiteddine Festival in Lebanon and the Commonwealth Institute in London. He has composed and performed for the Kronos Quartet and the Sacramento Symphony Orchestra, as well as for feature and documentary films. His music has been released on a number of CDs, including three Lyrichord albums, Ancient Egypt, Taqasim, and Mystical Legacies, and on a Kronos Quartet release titled Caravan. Dr. Racy is the recipient of numerous honors and tributes from a variety of cultural institutions for his outstanding artistry and his continuous work toward greater intercultural understanding and cooperation.

Dr. Robert Moser is an Associate Professor of Portuguese, Brazilian, and Lusophone African Literature and Culture at the University of Georgia. His published articles and reviews have appeared in various journals including Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies, Hispania, Leituras: Revista da Biblioteca Nacional, Imago Mundi, Luso-Brazilian Review, as well as the volume Images of the Corpse. Much of his work has been focused on the figure of the dead and the expressions of haunting and mourning in Luso-Brazilian literature. Recent research in this area focuses more specifically on the topos of the posthumous and other narrative "dislocations" in Machado de Assis's novels, short stories, poetry, and cronicas. Moser's book The Carnivalesque Defunto: Death and the Dead in Modern Literature was published in 2008. Moser teaches Luso-Brazilian Theater and has translated selected plays by Brazilian playwright Augusto Boal (founder of the Theater of the Oppressed), including As Aventuras do Tio Patinhas, which was produced by UGA’s Theater Department in Spring 2008. Moser’s recent teaching and research projects have also focused on immigrant literature in the Lusophone World, both in Brazil and North America. He is the co-editor of an anthology of writings by Luso-American authors, forthcoming with Rutgers University Press.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cost: Free and open to the public

How to Park at UCLA

For more information please contact

Amy Bruinooge, Center for Near Eastern Studies
Tel: 9310) 825-1455
cnes@international.ucla.edu
www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/events

Sponsor(s): Latin American Institute

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