James Gui

This project examines the entanglements of sound and (de)militarization in South Korea and Okinawa. Focusing on educational spaces, religious rituals, protests, and concerts, the dissertation examines how music and peace become articulated to each other in discourse, performance, and the practice of everyday life, building on recent ethnographies of militarism and transnational interventions in Asian studies. Collecting these phenomena under the term “paciphonic,” this project theorizes the formation of communities and concepts of peace that both interfere and collaborate with nation-state led narratives of security and deterrence. This project incorporates a concert tour between South Korea and Okinawa to both co-create knowledge with communities affected by militarization and disseminate preliminary findings.