Since the nineteenth century, voices have exploded into the world. They have been recorded, amplified, synthesized, rehabilitated, appreciated, and altered. The same period has also seen an explosion of study in the arts and sciences of the voice, in which The University of Iowa has long played a distinguished role. Carl Seashore, Wendell Johnson, E. C. Mabie, A. Craig Baird, among others, have left rich legacies for UI scholars and researchers. Today, the voice is an interdisciplinary site that draws together the arts, natural and social sciences, and the humanities. Its study can involve physics and politics, communication and culture, anatomy and art. In some fields, the voice is a question of physiology or acoustics; in others, it stands for something else, such as soul, text, style, power, or art.

Partipants (left to right)

Judith Pascoe (English) “Sarah Siddons Silenced.”

Corey K. Creekmur (English and Cinema and Comparative Literature) “Sounds of Blackness:  the African American Voice in the Racial Imagination.”

Katherine Eberle-Fink (Music) “Perceptual Acoustic Assessment Models and Voice Recital Performance.”

John Peters, Convener (Communication Studies) “The Voice in Culture and History.”

Kembrew McLeod (Communication Studies) “The History of the Way the Voice Has Been Captured Symbolically, Mechanically and Legally.”