Providing contexts for understanding musical narratives of power in the classroom: Music, politics, and power in Grenada, West Indies

The role of music in Grenada, West Indies has traditionally been to pass on knowledges, values, and ideals; and to provide a means of connecting to one another through expressing commonality of experience, ancestry, and nationhood. This paper explores how Eric Matthew Gairy, during his era of political leadership in Grenada (1951-1979), exploited the transmission and performance of music in very specific ways to further his career politically and exert power over Grenadian society. This historical case study of Grenada, where music was deliberately used as a method of supporting perceived social and political binaries, sheds light upon the power dynamics that are at play when we uplift certain musics in the classroom, and silence others

“Until I die, I will sing my calypso song”: Calypso, soca, and music education across a generational divide.

In post-revolution Grenada, explorations of identity often reveal a generational divide. This generational divide is frequently expressed through music (Sirek 2013, 2018). In this qualitative case study I use an ethnographic methodological approach to examine Grenadian calypso and soca music, analyzing data collected from observations and participant observations, interviews, investigation of media/social media; as well as calypso and soca music and lyrics. Drawing from Tönnies’ (1887/2017) constructs of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, I explore the ways in which calypso and soca musicking (Small 1998) and music education initiatives construct and articulate the generational divide in Grenada

Our culture is who we are! “Rescuing” Grenadian identity through musicking and music education

In this article I explore the relationships between identities and musicking in Grenada, West Indies, taking into account the understandings of community and nationhood that foreground and inform identity discourse in the Grenadian context. Through the dual lenses of music education and ethnomusicology, I analyze musicking and music education initiatives intended to “rescue” Grenadian identity and Grenadian values as articulated by an older generation of Grenadians and by governmental agencies. I argue that musicking in Grenada is intertwined with identity in complex ways, and that there is a perceived lack of transmission of folk musicking practices whose consequences extend well beyond losing musical traditions. This article illuminates conflicts of identity, the deep sense of loss of “who we are” that has occurred in Grenadian society in recent times, and controversies of music transmission

Mapping Cortical Plasticity Induced by Noise Exposure Using C-Fos Immunoreactivity

Using in vivo electrophysiological recordings in rats, our lab has recently observed that high-intensity noise exposure causes an increase in the number of neurons in the auditory and multisensory cortices that are responsive to visual stimuli (i.e., cortical crossmodal plasticity). To extend this work, the present study evaluated our hypothesis that this noise-induced crossmodal plasticity can also be assessed by mapping the expression of the activity marker, c-Fos, across multiple cortical areas in response to visual stimuli. Adult male rats were exposed to a 120dB noise (0.8-20kHz) for two hours, and the level of hearing loss was assessed with an auditory brainstem response (average hearing loss ~22±5 dB). Fourteen days later, noise-exposed rats (and age-matched shams) were subjected to a visual stimulation protocol known to induce c-Fos activation (200 light flashes; 1-3s ITI), followed by transcardial perfusion two hours post-stimulation. Visually-responsive neurons in the noise-exposed and sham rats were confirmed with immunohistochemistry and fluorescent microscopy. Inconsistent with our previous electrophysiological studies, the molecular mapping of c-Fos did not demonstrate an increased responsiveness to visual stimulation in the auditory and multisensory cortices following noise exposure. However, these results may be confounded by the short duration (6 min) of the visual stimulation protocol, as it evoked lower levels of c-Fos than previously reported in the literature. Future work will continue to investigate whether molecular mapping represents a useful tool for studying crossmodal plasticity

Medication Therapy Management Implementation in Conjunction with a Rural Health Clinic in Minnesota: A CQI Impact on Diabetes Metrics

The purpose of this continuous quality improvement project was to implement a pharmacist-led Medication Therapy Management (MTM) clinic in rural, central Minnesota and assess the impact on patients’ healthcare over a six-month period. Patients were identified through the clinic’s diabetes registry, which included patients 18 through 75 years old with a diagnosis of diabetes not meeting all five D5 goals, as recommended by the Minnesota Community Measurements, independently referred by the provider, or be identified by their insurance company as a patient that would benefit from an MTM visit. The D5 focuses on blood pressure and blood sugar control, appropriate statin and aspirin use, and cessation of tobacco products. Referred patients were offered and scheduled for an appointment with the pharmacist. MTM visits were provided both in person and via telephone. The pharmacist identified and documented drug therapy problems (DTPs) and implemented changes, via the system’s clinical pharmacy collaborative practice agreement, to improve patient outcomes. All MTM visits, DTPs, and composite D5 scores were analyzed after the conclusion of the study period. Thirty-one visits were provided by the pharmacist at the clinic between October 1st, 2021 and March 31st, 2022, with 22 unique patients seen. Seventy-three DTPs were identified, with 69 DTPs documented as closed. Of the 22 unique patients seen, 13 patients were reviewed for D5 metrics. Referral processes were created, implemented, and modified over the six-month period to increase patient volume

Identity, memory, and performance in the time of pandemic: A duoethnography

How can a musician maintain her sense of self in quarantine, a self that is constructed by intertwined strands of creativity, performativity, and relationship? The hiatus brought about during the pandemic has created a lack for musicians and music educators, an absence or loss of professional identity and personal meaning. On March 12, 2020, we found ourselves shut out of the classroom and barred from the performance stage. Over the course of a year, we two musician-educators engaged in duoethnography as a way of documenting our experiences. It became a site where we could provide each other with a “destabalizing lens” (Sawyer & Norris, 2016) to the metanarratives that both drove our sense of identity and constrained our ability to find our way to a new state of balance. This duoethnography traces our paths, as we moved through stages of distance and loss, and stages of simulacra and performativity, during the time of pandemic

Control, Constraint, Convergence: Examining Our Roles as Generalist Teacher Music Educators

This research explores the effects of institutional constraints on instructional practices in a preservice generalist teacher music education program in Ontario, Canada. Using Institutional Ethnography and document analysis of active texts, we, an adjunct and tenured professor, use our own experiences to elucidate the multiple points of control and constraint in which teacher education instructors operate. We examine the ways in which “official” documents, such as course outlines, activate institutional expectations and relations of power, and promote standardization (convergence). We explore factors that influence our curricular choices, pedagogical strategies, and occasional acts of resistance; and how these impact differently tenured and adjunct faculty. The paper includes an introduction to the Action Research project that sparked this inquiry, in which we are investigating generalist teache

Musical self-portraits and representations of non/conformity: In the music classroom with preservice generalist teachers

Self-portraits are a genre of art, but also constitute artefacts of identity. This research explores student-created musical self-portraits produced by more than 150 generalist teacher education students (preservice teachers) in Ontario, Canada over a period of three years. The self-portraits were completed and submitted as an assignment at the beginning of the term in a compulsory music education class. This paper examines the material practice, influences, and symbols that students used. Most of the selfportraits conformed to the idea of ‘the good teacher’, while only a few represented identities that lay outside social norms. The findings contribute to an understanding of how students may groom their self-image and construct a public identity to fit the institutional and cultural ethos of preservice teacher education program

Musicking and identity in Grenada: stories of transmission, remembering, and loss

Conceived as an ethnographic case study of the relationship between musicking and identities, this thesis examines the relationship between musical practices and experiences in the recent historical past, and in the present day, in Grenada, West Indies. Through the dual lenses of ethnomusicologist and music educator, I examine the impact of musicking – taking Christopher Small’s explication of this term – on the perceptions, constructions, and representations of identity in the Grenadian context, bringing to bear the themes of African ancestry and nationhood, commercialisation, reunderstanding, appropriation, folklorisation, authenticity, and performance. In exploring these themes, I illuminate controversies of the transmission of musicking, conflicts of identity, and the deep sense of loss that has occurred in Grenadian society, specifically through an analysis of calypso music, soca music, Carnival, and presentday musicking initiatives intended to ‘rescue’ Grenadian identity and Grenadian values. I conclude with reflections upon how I might bring these experiences and understandings of Grenadian musicking and its transmission to my own teaching practice and music educational research

Retrospective Cohort Study of the Efficacy of Azithromycin Vs. Doxycycline as Part of Combination Therapy in Non-Intensive Care Unit Veterans Hospitalized with Community-Acquired Pneumonia

The IDSA Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) Guideline recommends ceftriaxone in combination with doxycycline as an alternative to combination therapy with ceftriaxone and azithromycin for non-intensive care unit (ICU) patients hospitalized with CAP. This is an attractive alternative regimen due to recent concerns of increased cardiovascular risk associated with azithromycin. The objective of this study was to compare the clinical outcomes of azithromycin and doxycycline each in combination with ceftriaxone for non-ICU Veterans hospitalized with CAP