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Florida State / College of Music / Areas of Study / Musicology / Ethnomusicology / Medical Ethnomusicology
Medical Ethnomusicology
Medical ethnomusicology is an exciting new field of integrative and holistic research and applied practice at the nexus of music, medicine, health, healing, and culture. Studies in medical ethnomusicology at Florida State are dedicated to discovering new knowledge pertaining to music and the human condition, and applying that knowledge to serve and benefit people in diverse cultural and clinical contexts. This is a field that approaches music, health, and healing anew, engaging the biological, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual domains of human life that frame and inform our experiences of health and healing, illness and disease, life and death. Importantly, it emphasizes the ever-present and multifaceted frame of cultural context, which is always where meaning lies, and is often a key factor in facilitating or inhibiting the efficacy of any treatment, intervention, or practice.
Medical ethnomusicology is highly interdisciplinary and diverse in its methods and applications, representing a new stage of collaborative discourse among researchers, musicians, and practitioners. It embraces knowledge from diverse fields—knowledge which spans the globe of traditional cultural practices of music, health, and healing; includes biomedical, integrative, complementary, and alternative models of medicine; and is informed by cutting-edge developments in neuroscience, physics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, cognitive science, linguistics, medical anthropology, and the medical humanities, as well as music performance, improvisation, dance, and the healing arts.
At FSU, students interested in medical ethnomusicology are welcomed into a stimulating environment and supportive community that values and encourages creative and critical thinking, fosters innovative approaches to research and application, and offers many opportunities for collaborative research projects.
For more information on studies in Medical Ethnomusicology at FSU, contact Dr. Benjamin D. Koen, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology.
