Back to School with the Grateful Dead
On November 16-18 around 500-600 people are expected to attend an academic conference focusing on the legend that is the Grateful Dead at the University of Massachusetts.
The conference entitled Unbroken Chain: The Grateful Dead in Music, Culture and Memory, “Will bring together more than fifty presenters for twenty panel sessions ranging from music composition and improvisation to an examination of the band’s business model, as well as a musical performances, gallery exhibits, and presentations.”
This is one of the only ways you’d see me back in a classroom by the way.
According to the University more individuals from outside the student body and faculty are interested and make up the bulk of registered attendees. Interestingly the school already has two Grateful Dead courses going on; a semester-long graduate history seminar entitled American Beauty: Music, Culture and Society, 1945-95 and an undergraduate course entitled How Does the Song Go: The Grateful Dead as a Window into American Culture.
I went to college in Humboldt and didn’t even run into stuff like this so I think it’s a pretty sweet deal and open minded. Additionally important; the Dead make up so much of how a specific set of people think, feel, and act that it’s really one of those things you can only call sensational. True sensational; not some fly by night gig.
Some key events at the conference include:
- Carolyn Garcia, better know to Deadheads as “Mountain Girl” — not only was Carolyn first wife of guitarist Jerry Garcia but she was also a key player in the Merry Pranksters so her input will be obviously invaluable.
- David Gans host of the Grateful Dead Radio Hour for the past twenty years
- Bob Bralove; midi wizard to most.
- Dan Healy; designer of “Wall of Sound.”
- Dennis McNally, keynote speaker and longtime Dead publicist. He additionally wrote Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead.
- Rebecca Adams, author of Deadhead Social Science: You Ain’t Gonna Learn What You Don’t Wanna Know.
- David Dodd, editor of The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
- UMass English professor Nicholas Bromell, author of Tomorrow Never Knows: Rock and Psychedelics in the 60s.
- UMass professor of comparative literature David Lenson, author of On Drugs.
- Ethnomusicologist Fred Lieberman and psychologist and chaos theorist Stanley Krippner.
- Performances by the American Beauty Project ensemble.
Gallery events include:
- The Art of Jerry Garcia
- Grateful Dead Posters & Handbills
- Merry Pranksters Art
- Joshua Light Show Video
- Cosmic Casbah
- And way more.
So, I didn’t even list the entire line up — there are actually more than 50 presenters for 20 panel sessions. You can see everything including all gallery events and more at the Unbroken Chain event site.
What do you make of this line up? Holy crap comes to mind. Seriously; how amazing is this event. I would love to go. Everything good happens so far away. Lame. But cool that it’s even happening. This is a band that should be discussed.
John Mullin, Dean of the UMass Amherst Graduate School says, “Is it possible that we’ll take a hit for focusing this kind of intellectual talent on what Jerry Garcia himself called ‘just a dance band? Perhaps, but universities like ours need to be courageous in propelling serious scholarship in new directions, and in reaching out to communities far and wide. When we are timid in academia, we miss real opportunities. We hope that The Grateful Dead is just the beginning.” Nice.
Historian Nicholas Meriwether, author of All Graceful Instruments: The Contexts of the Grateful Dead Phenomenon, notes this (which won’t be news to the Deadheads but is cool all the same), “Ultimately the Dead phenomenon suggests a new way of looking at yourself, of what we are capable of in a modern western society that appears increasingly fragmented, media-driven, manipulated and alienating…In an era in which academics are increasingly aware of the need to collaborate across disciplinary lines, a topic with as broad-based an appeal as the Dead phenomenon should be fascinating–and welcome.” Well said sir.
To learn more or to register to attend there are two event sites you can visit.The University event site and the official event website. If you do want to attend space is limited so I’d get right on that if I were you. The cost to attend is $295 for the full three days and concerts are extra.
Would you spend three days learning more about the various perspectives of the Dead? I’d go. I’m guessing that it will be amazing and enlightening.
Tags: Culture-and-Memory, Grateful Dead, Grateful-Dead-Radio-Hour, hippie-sounds, Jerry-Garcia, Mountain-Girl, Nicholas-Meriwether, Unbroken-Chain:-The-Grateful-Dead-in-Music, University-of-MassachusettsRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Celebrations, Contest, Cool Music News, Grateful Dead, Jerry
1 opinion for Back to School with the Grateful Dead
Danielle
Dec 3, 2007 at 4:31 pm
I am in the undergraduate class at UMass and attended the conference, both are amazing and I have learned a lot more then some other classes. It allows students to understand history and culture of our society in a way that is interesting. It is not easy because as students we are asked to think outside the normal realm of looking at history and apply it.
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