UNM Anthropology Associate Professor publishes the final Italian translation book

Kristina Jacobsen, extraordinary professor of ethnom music, songwriting and anthropology, has published a final Italian translation of her book. Sing me at Home: Songwriting Etnographico e Poltica della lingua sardaPublished by Neocklassica Press in Rome and translated by Antonio Gambacorta. The book was published earlier in February.

Jacobsen will visit the book this spring in a number of appearances about Sardinia and mainland Italy, in which she will combine readings with live appearances.

Based on her 13-month field study as a US-I-Sititaly Fulbright scholar, the book Jacobsen's time on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, where she examined the Sardinian language, has worked with local musicians and developed her research approach, which she calls “ethnographic” Songwriting. “

Ethnographic songwriting is an immersive and collaborative process in which she wrote music with Sardinia musicians, craftsmen, shepherds, poets and voice activists. The book asks the question: “How are Sardinian life and language ideologies told against the background of American music?” And shows how Sardinian musicians share their history and genres to create something new, and is clearly their own.

Kristina Jacobsen

Paul Stoller, anthropologist and professor at West Chester University, praises Jacobsen's work: “Jacobsen delivers brilliant ethnography. Through her sensual descriptions of Sardin social life, it offers us a new way to research the hidden dimensions of language, song and culture. This soulful work is determined to become an anthropological classic. ”

During his time in Sardinia, Jacobsen recorded her fourth album of original songs with Sardinian songwriters and voice activists. The book contains these original songs, links to the songs in every chapter, texts, a glossary of key terms and photos from their time in Sardinia.

Her next project “From Sardinia to New Mexico: MultiPart sing as a cultural exchange” is a film commissioned in Italy with Jacobsen and her Fulbright Scholar partner Diego Pani. The event takes place in the guild cinema in Albuquerque. It is free of charge and accessible to the public, but reservations are requested in advance on the AMP Concerts site.

To read the book in English, visit UTP Publishing.