In On Site, In Sound Kirstie A. Dorr examines the spatiality of sound and the ways in which the sonic is bound up in perceptions and constructions of geographic space. Focusing on the hemispheric circulation of South American musical cultures, Dorr shows how sonic production and spatial formation are mutually constitutive, thereby pointing to how people can use music and sound to challenge and transform dominant conceptions and configurations of place. Whether tracing how the evolution of the Peruvian folk song "El Condor Pasa" redefined the boundaries between national/international and rural/urban, or how a pan-Latin American performance center in San Francisco provided a venue through which to challenge gentrification, Dorr highlights how South American musicians and activists created new and alternative networks of cultural exchange and geopolitical belonging throughout the hemisphere. In linking geography with musical sound, Dorr demonstrates that place is more than the location where sound is produced and circulated; it is a constructed and contested domain through which social actors exert political influence.

Kirstie A. Dorr is Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

-- Nancy Sue Love Ethnic and Racial Studies

-- Nathan Siu-Fung Cheung Antipode

-- Anthony W. Rasmussen Sound Studies

-- John Gennari The Americas

-- Juan Suárez Ontaneda The Latin Americanist

-- Elizabeth Schwall Latin American Research Review