Department of Music Lecture: Steve Lamos, Associate Professor in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric and English Department at UC Boulder

Title

“Writing With Emo Nostalgia: Navigating Pasts, Presents, and Futures”
 

Abstract

This talk explores how researchers, teachers, and students can “write with” the unfolding embodied experience of nostalgic music, especially emo music, as a means to navigate past experience, present feeling, and future challenge.   It combines insights from musicology (e.g., Robinson; Brett) with insights from rhetoric and composition (e.g., Adams; Ceraso) to analyze two case studies of such writing: first, a personal example exploring how writing with a live drumming performance can generate a particular kind of presence and mindfulness; second, an example from a student writer highlighting how writing with a studio recording can help to navigate both past trauma and present-day healing.  Finally, the talk explores the potential benefits of writing with emo in a world critical of the value of a college education in general and of education in humanistic endeavors in particular.

Biography

Steve Lamos is an Associate Professor in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric and English Department at the University of Colorado-Boulder. His publications include the book Interests and Opportunities: Race, Racism, and University Writing Instruction in the Post-Civil Rights Era (Pitt UP), winner of a 2013 “Special Commendation” from the Conference on College Composition and Communication; the essay “Toward Job Security for Teaching-Track Composition Faculty: Recognizing and Rewarding Affective-Labor-in-Space,” winner of the 2016 Richard C. Ohmann prize from College English; and work in College Composition and Communication, College English, Journal of Basic Writing, Writing Program Administration, Composition Studies, The CEA Critic, and elsewhere.

Lamos’ current book project is tentatively titled Resonant Rhythms: Drumming, Writing, and Professing a Literate Life.  It explores intersections between his academic work and his work as the drummer and trumpet player for the indie / emo band American Football.  American Football has been lauded as a particularly influential “Midwest Emo” artist by Rolling Stone, Spin, New Music Express, The Guardian, Alternative Press, Pitchfork, NPR, and many others.