Seminar in Ethnomusicology and Sound Studies: Nomi Dave (University of Virginia)
Listening to White Supremacy on Trial: Audio Remote Access and the Limits of Open Justice
Free to attend, no registration required.
In 2022, the trial took place of Elizabeth Sines v. Jason Kessler, in a United States District Court in Virginia. The defendants represented a who's who of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Christian nationalists in the US, charged with inflicting violence and intimidation during a deadly rally in 2017. While U.S. district courts do not allow cameras to broadcast their proceedings, the public could follow the trial through an audio remote call-in line. For both the plaintiffs and the defendants, the case - and the call-in line - were means to capture public attention and shape the larger narrative.
Sines v. Kessler highlights key questions around open justice - or the access that members of the public have to judicial proceedings - and to what happens when this access is mediated through sound. Technologies such as teleconferencing and audio livestreaming have generated debates and new practices around public access to trials. How is legal access premised on listening? What constitutes a fair and public trial? And, as Sines v. Kessler leads us to ask, what does it mean - for the law and for ordinary people - to listen in the context of white supremacy and hate? In this talk, I analyze remote listening to consider how both the form and the content of audio access to hate complicate debates around open justice. As I show, remote audio access at times raises difficult questions about who is listening and who we are listening to.
Nomi Dave works across sound studies, law and anthropology, researching the role of sound, voice and listening in legal and extra-legal processes. She is currently working on two projects. The first is a documentary film, as well as text and advocacy, on defamation, sexual violence and gender justice in the Republic of Guinea. The second project is on audio livestreaming and practices of listening in court proceedings in the United States. Nomi is a former lawyer and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Virginia, where she is also a co-director of the Sound Justice Lab. She is on research leave in 2023-24 as an academic visitor at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford.
About the series:
The Seminar in Ethnomusicology and Sound Studies is convened by Professor Jason Stanyek of the University of Oxford. Former convenors of the series were Professor Martin Stokes (currently at King's College London) and Professor Noel Lobley (currently at the University of Virginia). Featuring lectures by leading scholars who have adventurous takes on musical and sonic cultures, the series has a particular grounding in anthropology, sound studies, and ethnomusicology. We typically hold two or three seminars each academic term. Our standard meeting time is on Thursdays at 5pm and events usually take place at or near St John's College. Our seminars are open to all and admission is free. There is a wine reception after each talk. If you have any questions about the series please contact Professor Stanyek.