From University Student to « Sound Student »
This article discusses a pedagogical strategy used to teach sound studies from an anthropological perspective, taking the undergraduate course « The Anthropology of Sound » offered by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Victoria since 2012 as a case study. This course is, according to our knowledge, a premiere in a Canadian University. The article discusses the transition from university student to « sound student » through a « sound awakening » that pays special attention to the sounds that surround us. Moreover, the teaching of sound contributes, along sensorial approaches in anthropology, to the destabilization of visual hegemony often observed in modern societies. The discipline of anthropology should develop a stronger interest for sound in its teaching and during ethnographic fieldwork. Such an opening would have the potential to stimulate alternative ways of analyzing, theorizing and creating in anthropology.