Josh Opoku Brew, a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology in the Department of Music, has been awarded a prestigious two-year Woodson Predoctoral Fellowship in the Carter G. Woodson Institute housed at the University of Virginia to write his dissertation, Gifts from Nature: Music, Indigenous Knowledge, and Ecological Sustainability in Ghana. Josh's research examines and utilizes African music, sound, and indigenous knowledge systems through ethnography and community engagement to advocate for environmental sustainability in Ghana.
From the announcement:
Joshua Brew, University of Pittsburgh, Ethnomusicology and African Studies
Title: "Gifts from Nature: Music, Indigenous Knowledge, and Ecological Sustainability in Ghana"
Project description: Josh is a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh; his dissertation, “Gifts from Nature,” is a crucial and timely response to the Anthropocene. His research examines and utilizes African music, sound, and indigenous knowledge systems through ethnography and community engagement to advocate for environmental sustainability in Ghana. His study conceptualizes natural resources, musical talents, and sounds as Gifts from Nature to interrogate the disrupted relationship between humans, non-humans, and nature amid the prevailing global ecological crisis. In essence, “Gifts from Nature” effectively highlights how African indigenous ontologies and epistemologies, conveyed through music and sound, can inform modern strategies in dealing with the Anthropocene.