MUSIC & TALKS WITH UPATYAKA DUTTA
Event Details:
Music Colloquium Talk & Performance:
On the Field, Making Archives
October 28, 2025
10-11:30am
Music Center, Room 131
In-Person Only Event
Center for South Asian Studies Talk:
As We Sing, So Shall We Pluck
Thursday, November 6, 2025
12-1:30pm
Humanities 1, Room 210
Hybrid Event
Abstract: Within the everyday workspaces of Assam’s tea plantations, Adivasi tea tribes engage in listening, sounding, and music. At times, these sounds and music flow into Adivasi living areas known as “lines.” In this talk, Upatyaka explores the dynamic relationship between the sounds of the workplace and the sociocultural life woven through tea plantation labor. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted across Assam’s tea estates, and her experiences as a singer from the region, she listens to the voices of Adivasi women pluckers—their songs, conversations, and laughter; Adivasi and non-Adivasi interactions; and the broader soundscape in which they work.
Bio: Upatyaka Dutta is a doctoral candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto, and a 2024 recipient of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s 21st Century Fellowship. Her broader research interests include community and collaborative archival practices, and sound studies.