History, Materiality, and the future of jazz studies

Within this paper, I explore the tensions between the current political climate and the objectives of transnational jazz scholarship. I begin by revisiting Bruno Latour’s work on the problems of critique, which expressed anxieties over similarities between academic criticism that resists scientific certainty and/or the naturalisation of facts and the strategies of politicians who seek to promote falsehoods, alternate realities, and a distrust in expertise.

In mapping these anxieties onto jazz studies, I follow Latour’s lead, discussing a shift from matters of fact to matters of concern and explore ways in which future jazz scholarship could navigate the current political terrain and develop new critical frameworks. To conclude, I provide an illustration of how material objects can enable us to intersect dominant histories with marginal, untold stories, linking the past to the politics of the present.