William Cheng on Musicology, Care and Repair

For the finale of the musicology podcast Sound Expertise, hosted by Dr. William Robin (University of Maryland), Professor William Cheng was invited for a wide-ranging discussion of his scholarship and the future of the field.

From the episode description:

[W]e have the exact right guest to help say goodbye to a podcast that focuses on music scholarship, and why it matters: William Cheng, whose work fundamentally reconsiders what musicology can be, by laying out a philosophy of care and repair. This conversation covers a large swath of Dr. Cheng's scholarship, including his foundational writing on music and video games, his public-oriented social justice advocacy, and his scrutiny of ethical questions around musical taste. It's a rumination on the present and future of the field. And it's our finale.

The Sound Expertise podcast, which began in 2020 and ran for four seasons, featured interviews with leading lights in music scholarship. Previous guests on the podcast include Susan McClary, Alex Ross, Timothy Taylor, Suzanne Cusick, Richard Taruskin, Dylan Robinson, Ellie Hisama, and Philip Ewell (the last two of whom recently presented the music department's Leonard J. Reade Distinguished Lecture on Music and Racial Justice).

The episode, and all episodes of Sound Expertise, are available on all podcast platforms.