Plummer Lecture: Jonathan Pieslak, "What We Can Learn About Extremism Through Its Music"

Jonathan Pieslak is Professor of Music at City College of New York and the CUNY Graduate School, where he specializes in the cultural dimensions of extremism. His talk will explore music’s role in a variety of extremist settings. The abundant examples of music’s direct involvement and impact in violent acts of terrorism encourage us to examine more deeply the art form’s influence upon the radicalization, reinforcement, and motivational techniques of violent political activists. Beyond the peripheries of incidental propaganda, music provides a valuable case study through which we can understand transformational elements of emotion, social bonding, and identify formation that operate within contemporary extremism. A reception will follow the lecture.