Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series: Fall 2025
Sonic Disobedience: Nationalist Mobilisation and the Arrival of Sound Technology
402 Cohen Hall
249 S. 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
This series of lectures will unfold the working chapters of a book project in which I explore the sounds of the Civil Disobedience campaign (1930-1934), a mass movement that coincided precisely with the 'arrival' of various sound technologies to British India. Much of the emphasis on Gandhi's dominance as a leader and his relationship with 'the masses' who adored him has been focussed on their desire for seeing him (darshan). By adopting a multisensorial methodological lens and focussing on Gandhi's use of public address technologies (microphones and loudspeakers) at mass meetings; his appearance in silent and "talkie films; and of the Congress appropriation of British radiowaves, the talks will focus on the reverberations of Gandhi's voice and the creation of nationalist listening.
- Sound and Mass Mobilisation before the Microphone, 1921-1927 (August 27th)
Cohen Hall 402(249 S. S.36h Street) - Microphones as Oratorial Infrastructure (September 3rd) Cohen Hall 402
- Listening to Silent Film: Fragments of Congress Footage (September 10th) Cohen
Hall 402(249 S 36th Street) - Sound Film and what it says (September 17th Cohen Hall 402(249 S. 36" Street)
- Congress Broadcasting before "Congress Radio" (September 19th) Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics Room 200(133 S. 36" Street)
