{"id":63,"date":"2026-01-06T22:14:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T22:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-25-26\/?p=63"},"modified":"2026-01-07T17:14:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T17:14:38","slug":"dangerous-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2025-2026\/dangerous-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During fall, a panel of faculty from the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts explored \u201cdangerous questions\u201d from a variety of disciplines to understand and respond to challenges facing American universities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Topics addressed were \u201cWhat Would Shakespeare Say?\u201d (Ambereen Dadabhoy, associate professor of literature), \u201cWhat Can Art Do During a Fascist Takeover?\u201d (Rachel Mayeri, artist and professor of media studies), \u201cCreative Politics as a Strategic Response to Authoritarianism\u201d (Paul Steinberg, Malcolm Lewis Professor in Sustainability and Society; professor of political science and environmental policy), \u201cInvasive Species: Blaming Dysregulated Plant Neighbors Is a \u2018Settler Move\u2019 to Innocence\u201d (Anup Gampa, associate professor of psychology) and \u201cGeography Against Immediacy\u201d (David K. Seitz, associate professor of cultural geography). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his talk, \u201cSounding (Anti-) Authoritarian: A Few Vignettes,\u201d David Wilson, assistant professor of music, examined how music reflects and resists power across time and place. Through three case studies\u2014Nazi Germany, Maoist China and post-Fukushima Japan\u2014the talk reveals music\u2019s relationship to politics and propaganda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1934, composer Paul Hindemith attempted to appease the Nazi regime with David Wilson, assistant professor of music a patriotic symphony only to be blacklisted after audiences used the performance to protest. Wilson concluded, \u201cAppeasement does not protect.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
David Wilson, assistant professor of music<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966, he sought to \u201cprotect his position at the apex of Chinese politics. To the greater Chinese public, however, the Cultural Revolution was branded as, \u2018a movement to touch people to their very souls,\u2019\u201d said Wilson. At its heart was a new form of cultural production called \u201cthe model works\u201d: lavish operas and ballets merging politics and art that became instruments of persuasion and control. \u201cMusic can distract from the intrinsic incoherence of political movements,\u201d Wilson observed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Japan\u2019s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power disaster in 2011, indie and amateur musicians filled the silence left by major artists tied to corporate power, galvanizing the nation\u2019s largest protest movement in 50 years. Wilson noted, \u201cMusic is a powerful tool in any political debate, and all parties will vie to control it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson argued that music is never politically neutral; it \u201cevades the logical\u201d and moves people emotionally, which is precisely why regimes seek to control it. From the Washington Mall to Tiananmen Square, Wilson said, revolutionary moments have been anchored by and sounded through music. \u201cSound\u2014even wordless, non-semantic but synchronized sound\u2014is power,\u201d a reminder that music\u2019s emotional resonance can both sustain authority and inspire defiance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
HSA professors David Seitz, David Wilson, Anup Gampa, Ambereen Dadabhoy, Rachel Mayeri
and Paul Steinberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During fall, a panel of faculty from the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts explored \u201cdangerous questions\u201d from a variety of disciplines to understand and respond to challenges facing American universities. Topics addressed were \u201cWhat Would Shakespeare Say?\u201d (Ambereen Dadabhoy, associate professor of literature), \u201cWhat Can Art Do During a Fascist Takeover?\u201d (Rachel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2025-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2025-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2025-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2025-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2025-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2025-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2025-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2025-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2025-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2025-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}