Nicholas Hockin, MA
Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology, Antioch University
Program Director, Arts and Culture in West Africa
PhD Candidate Music (Ethnomusicology), Wesleyan University; MA Music (Ethnomusicology), Wesleyan University; BFA Music (Performance), York University, Toronto, Canada
Professor Hockin has been directing the Arts and Culture program since 2007. He is an ethnomusicologist completing his doctoral degree at Wesleyan University. The working title of his dissertation is Drumming Modernity: The Rise of the Djembe in Bamako, Mali.
In addition to an active career as a percussionist in various jazz, pop and world music ensembles, and as creative collaborator in modern dance and theatre projects in his home city of Toronto, Nick has extensive experience teaching Malian and Guinean djembe and dunun repertoire and Senegambian kuotiro, as well as some Shona mbira music from Zimbabwe. His work at Wesleyan has run the gamut from teaching courses on Mande music and culture, and editing English translations of Sanskrit and Tamil song texts, to creating the original digitized library catalogue for the Wesleyan World Music Archives’ African Market Cassette Collection, sourced from over 300 audio tapes of Malian, Guinean, Senegalese and Gambian popular and traditional music.
Background
Professor Hockin’s research in the Mande cultural region of Mali and the Republic of Guinea began in 1999. His experience as a student and performer of Mande music provide the practical grounding for his theoretical work on indigenous, local engagement with tradition and modernity in an increasingly globalized world economy. Over the last 14 years he has developed an extensive network of contacts both inside and outside the Mande culture industry, including visual and performing artists and artisans who personify the unique bridging of historical and contemporary cultural elements so prevalent in urban West Africa today.
Besides conducting ongoing research on West African wedding celebrations and drum ensembles, Nick is currently a member of a multidisciplinary research team studying and documenting the D’mba mask ceremonies of the Baga people of coastal Guinea, funded in part by the Fulbright Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
To receive further information about Arts and Culture in West Africa or for immediate assistance, please contact us. Professor Hockin is teaching on location in Guinea throughout the fall semester. You may contact Nick Hockin at: nhockin@antioch.edu.
