Damascus Kafumbe
Edward C. Knox Professor of International Studies & Professor of Music
- Office
- Mahaney Arts Center
- Tel
- (802) 443-5578
- dkafumbe@middlebury.edu
- Office Hours
- On Leave 2024-2025 Academic Year
Since joining Middlebury College in 2011, Damascus Kafumbe has dedicated his career to expanding the understanding of global musical traditions through innovative pedagogy, research, and creative expression. His academic approach is deeply interdisciplinary, emphasizing holistic and experiential activities that bridge scholarly research, teaching, and community engagement. At Middlebury, Kafumbe directs the Afropop Band and maintains the college’s Ugandan musical instrument collection, providing students with hands-on experience in global musical traditions. His research focuses on the intricate relationships between musical performance, politics, history, and social organization in Uganda, prioritizing collaborative research that amplifies community voices. Kafumbe’s significant publications include Interpreting Court Song in Uganda: Musical Meaning, Power Relations, and Political Life (2025) and Tuning the Kingdom: Kawuugulu Musical Performance, Politics, and Storytelling in Buganda (2018), which received the 2020 Kwabena Nketia Book Prize and an Honorable Mention for the 2019 Bethwell A. Ogot Book Prize. Beyond academic writing, he has produced a documentary film, composed film soundtracks, and released musical recordings. Kafumbe’s commitment to global engagement is evident in his co-authored interactive online African music courses that reach 3.6 million students across 88 countries. His professional service includes leadership roles in the Society for Ethnomusicology and the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance. He has also served as a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow at University of Jos in Nigeria, Editor of the Eastman/Rochester Studies in Ethnomusicology series, and Book Review Editor for Traditions of Music and Dance at Cambridge University Press. Recognized with awards such as the 2015 Peter E. Branch ‘65 Exceptional Junior Faculty Award and the 2024 Warren D. Allen Faculty Citation for Distinguished Achievement in Scholarly Research in Music, Kafumbe continues to make ethnomusicology a vibrant, accessible, and transformative field.
Courses Taught
FYSE 1101
Upcoming
Analyzing World Musical Pieces
Course Description
Analyzing World Musical Pieces
Every musical piece tells stories about its place of origin, the artists who create and perform it, the contexts of its performance, the audiences that experience it, and the meanings associated with it. Yet, these stories are often unobvious to listeners without the right tools to analyze and interpret the piece. In this seminar we will develop critical skills for analyzing exemplary musical pieces from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. Through readings, writing assignments, lectures, discussions, mini-performances, research activities, and oral presentations, we will learn how to appreciate and represent diverse musical works and their accompanying stories more fully and appropriately, as extensions of their sonic and extra-sonic worlds. No musical background is required.
Terms Taught
Requirements
HIST 0120
Musicking Power and Resistance
Course Description
Musicking Power and Resistance
Why has music been considered a threat to power, and thus been censured or banned in various geographic and historical moments? Why and how has it served as a form of resistance and protest that has given the oppressed a voice in others? We will use these questions as guiding frameworks for exploring how music has related with power and resistance in a global context. Engaging with music’s sonic and extra-sonic elements, we will develop skills for analyzing how these elements have shaped spiritual, political, social, and economic forms of power and resistance in a series of case studies drawn from different time periods and geographic locations. Course activities will include reading, writing, music and video analyses, performance-related activities and concert attendance, as well as lectures and discussions. No prior musical training required.
Terms Taught
Requirements
IGST 0703
Upcoming
LAS Senior Thesis
Course Description
Latin American Studies Senior Thesis
(Approval Required)
Terms Taught
MUSC 0134
What in the World is Music?
Course Description
What in the World is Music?
In this course we will explore global musical cultures in order to better understand both those musical cultures and our own in relation to one another. The course has two goals: to introduce students to unfamiliar ways of listening to and thinking about different elements of music (including – but not limited to – rhythm, melody, timbre, texture, harmony, and form); and to develop skills for appreciating cultural significances of these elements. We will achieve these goals through readings, lectures, discussions, film screenings, listening sessions, workshops, concerts, and hands-on activities. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
MUSC 0205
Upcoming
Performance Lab
Course Description
Performance Lab
Credit can be conferred for performance in faculty-supervised ensembles: (see listing of "Ensembles" in the requirements section). One unit of credit to accrue over two semesters (spring then fall only). The appropriate supervising faculty will give grades, based on attendance and quality of performance. A student should inform the ensemble director of intent to sign up for this course before starting, and should actually register for MUSC 0205 only the SECOND of the two terms by adding it as a fifth course. (Approval required)
Terms Taught
Requirements
MUSC 0244
Upcoming
African Music Dance & Perform.
Course Description
African Music and Dance Performance
This course will introduce students to various techniques of performing East African (primarily Ugandan) musical and dance traditions through regular rehearsals, culminating in an end-of-semester concert. As an ensemble, we will learn and master how to play and sing/dance to bow-harps, thumb-pianos, xylophones, tube-fiddles, bowl-lyres, gourd shakers, struck gourds, reed-box rattles, ankle bells, leg rattles, and various types of drums. Some background in performing music is recommended, but prior knowledge of performing African music and dance is not required. 3 hrs. lect./lab
Terms Taught
Requirements
MUSC 0334
Music in World Cultures
Course Description
Music in World Cultures
In this course students will develop skills for analyzing a wide range of music styles and appreciating their social, economic, and political importance. We will explore selected case studies through readings, lectures, discussions, film screenings, listening sessions, workshops, concerts, and hands-on activities. (MUSC 0209 or MUSC 0261) 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
MUSC 0400
Approaches to Music Inquiry
Course Description
Approaches to Music Inquiry
Topic is determined by the instructor - refer to section for the course description.
Terms Taught
Requirements
MUSC 0500
Upcoming
Independent Study
Course Description
Independent Study
Admission by approval. Please consult published departmental guidelines and paragraph below.
Terms Taught
MUSC 0704
Upcoming
Senior Work
Course Description
Senior Work
Senior work is not required of all music majors and joint majors. However, students interested in and eligible for departmental honors (see guideline above, in "Departmental Honors" section) may propose one or two-semester Senior Work projects. Projects may be in history, composition, theory, ethnomusicology, performance, or electronic music, and should culminate in a written presentation, a public performance, or a combination of the two. MUSC0704 does not count as a course toward fulfillment of the music major.
Project and budget proposals for Independent Study and Senior Work should be submitted by the previous April 1 for fall and winter term projects, and the previous October 15 for spring term projects. Budget proposals will not be considered after those dates. Project proposals will be considered after the deadline but are more likely not to be approved due to previous commitments of faculty advisors or other scheduling reasons.
Terms Taught
SUMR 1007
Performing Arts in Uganda
Course Description
Performing Arts & Community Engagement in Uganda
Using a Community-Based Learning framework, this class will immerse students in a community of musical instrument makers in Mpambire Village, Mpigi District. With the guidance of the course instructors, the students will collaborate with members of the community to identify its challenges and objectives. The students will then integrate these into their academic goals (within their respective majors) via community-based research and projects. The goal of the course is to effect positive change for the mutual benefit of the community partners and student learning, which includes mentorship with these partners. The skills that the students will develop through their community-based learning experiences will stretch their capacities for effective engagement and cross-cultural understanding.
Terms Taught
Requirements