Deborah Wong, Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Riverside, poses the question: Why do ethnomusicologists still rely on books to present their scholarship? This presentation will consider the challenges that research on taiko (Japanese/American drumming) poses to textual representation, and addresses how any research on performance should push at the limits of the page.

Dr. Wong specializes in the musics of Asian America and Thailand and has published two books, Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Ritual (University of Chicago Press, 2001) and Speak It Louder: Asian Americans Making Music (Routledge, 2004). She served as President of the Society for Ethnomusicology in 2007-'09 and is presently President of the Board for the Alliance for California Traditional Arts.