Naga Scholars’ Association (NSA) special talk on “Ethnomusicology as a means of understanding people in the past” was organized at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on February 28.
A press release from NSA president, Dr. Zuchamo Yanthan and general secretary, Dr. Lungthuiyang Riamei stated that, invited speaker was Dr. Peter D’Sena, from University of Hertfordshire, UK, also a senior research fellow at University of London.
Dr. Peter discussed on issues such as migration and music, environment and music, and music as pedagogy and brought out that ethnomusicology is the study of music in relation to the society and culture in which it was created. He emphasized that ethnomusicology was also important to reconstructing the histories of the people who have left with very few written records. Dr. Peter also mentioned that ethnomusicology can be applied for making student interested in teaching-learning and engaging them to be a part of studying history in order to understand the present and also as a methodology for relearning history.
Further, he stated, in an era when commercialization of education was a growing phenomenon, this approach shall prove to be very useful for teachers to impart values in the student community.
The talk was attended by faculty members and research scholars from different disciplines and universities in Delhi.
Earlier, session started with a welcome address by Dr. Zuchamo Yanthan in the programme chaired by Dr. Susmita Dasgupta, chief economist at Joint Planned Commission, ministry of Steel. Rapportuer was Zajano Z Yanthan, PhD scholar, TISS, Mumbai.