An ending, a beginning, a ceremony, a defense\u2026 I was lucky to \u201cdefend\u201d in the company of
\nfriends, family, colleagues, and a generous committee whose work inspires me. It was an
\nopportunity to share and tie together the research I had done over the past five years of my PhD.
\nIt offered me new perspective on the chapters I had written piece by piece; to go from the
\nmicroscopic scale of words and sentences to the constellation of a book-to-be.
\nEven a few months prior, this kind of public summation had seemed far out of reach. I was still
\nediting, reading out loud the transitions between subsections and adding in citations, context, and
\nmore examples. In the weeds, I remember wondering how anything this long could be explained,
\nlet alone defended. I must thank my advisor, Professor Paola Gambarota, for convincing me I
\nwas ready to finish this stage of the project.<\/p>\n
My dissertation is called \u201cDecomposing the Voice: Tape Poetics and the Politics of Listening in
\nCold War Italy and Latin America\u201d. I argue that magnetic tape is a crucial part of recent cultural
\nhistory and the expansion of who and what is heard as \u201chaving\u201d a voice. Tape recording
\nchallenged literary styles and forms by revealing the imbrication of writing and listening. It
\nproduced new ways of negotiating the nature of political collectivity. As a musician and
\nsonically inclined tinkerer, tape has fascinated me for a long time. Here was an opportunity to
\ndelve into its materiality and sociality from multiple perspectives: from post-war electronic
\nmusic in Italy, to Chilean performance art, to a contemporary Colombian novel. I found tape
\nspeaking to a set of overlapping questions that negotiate the boundaries of music and noise,
\nhistory and fiction, subject and object.<\/p>\n
I was more excited than nervous the morning of the defense. I felt prepared (five years after all!).
\nIf anything, imagining explaining what I\u2019d been doing to my friends and family was the most
\nclarifying approach of all. It forced me to be specific in my answers and definitions, concise in
\nmy examples and methods. The best part, besides the feeling of being done with something
\n(ceremonies are important), was getting to hear the eloquent feedback of my committee,
\nProfessors Jorge Marcone, Andy Parker, and Ana Mar\u00eda Ochoa. I thank all the Comparative
\nLiterature faculty and my fellow colleagues who supported me.<\/p>\n
Milan Reynolds
\nDissertation Defense – Feb 24, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"