Ron Alexander Memorial Lectures in Musicology: Jessica Swanston Baker, University of Chicago

Title: "Island Time: Sounding Speed in St. Kitts and Nevis"

Abstract: This talk draws on my recently published book, Island Time: Speed and the Archipelago in St. Kitts and Nevis (University of Chicago Press, 2024). In this work, I explore musical and bodily speed as an experience of deviation from an expected path—one that is felt primarily during periods of change. Focusing on key political and social shifts throughout St. Kitts and Nevis’s history (starting in the immediate pre-independence era of the 1960s and 70s and moving through more contemporary changes in the neoliberal landscape), this talk highlights how sounding fast—using local music and sound practice to evoke sensations of speed— has shaped waves of generational change on these small Eastern Caribbean Islands.

Jessica Swanston Baker is an ethnomusicologist and assistant professor of music at the University of Chicago. Her work focuses primarily on popular music of the Caribbean and has been featured in Ethnomusicology, Representations, and other journals and edited collections. Her first book, Island Time: Speed and the Archipelago from St. Kitts and Nevis (University of Chicago Press, 2024), traces the sonic history of wylers, an up-tempo style of popular music from St. Kitts and Nevis that surged in popularity in the late 1990s. When she is not teaching, writing, or researching, she finds joy in all kinds of singing, mosaic crochet, and improvisational cooking.

Admission Information

• Free admission