Festival of the Creative Arts: Ethics of Musicology Research

The Florida State University Office of Research’s Festival of the Creative Arts, in partnership with the Claude Pepper Center, hosted an Ethics Symposium, one of 12 events presented throughout the month-long, campuswide interdisciplinary learning series to highlight the different voices, talents, and creativity of FSU faculty and students.

Department of English Professor Christopher Okonkwo joined FSU Professor of Musicology Frank Gunderson as a responder for Gunderson’s talk on the ethics of musicology research.

“Besides the honor of my individualized invitation to the occasion, the sheer pleasure of meeting colleagues from various Arts and Sciences programs during the festival and having the opportunity to moderate Frank’s presentation help my teaching and research interests tremendously,” Okonkwo says.

During the Feb. 7 presentation, Gunderson elaborated on four topics to consider in ethics and music research: consent, power/representation, ownership, and accountability.

His focus on consent included an explanation of University Institutional Review Boards, which require that participants who agree to be part of a study sign a consent form. In music research, however, the rigidity of the process can create issues and obstacles.

“IRB forms are designed primarily for the biomedical field, and they often fail to accommodate the nuances of music research,” Gunderson said from the stage. “In many oral traditions, community bonds are central—and a signature on a form can hardly capture what true consent means. Ethical consent must be an ongoing, culturally sensitive process.”

He recalled a case where a colleague chose to sing the consent process in Urdu to a Sufi elder in a remote village in Pakistan.

“This respected elder does not read English, nor does he subscribe to the bureaucratic formalities that define consent in Western institutions,” Gunderson continued. “Instead, his approval might be given through song—a melodic expression of trust and mutual understanding. The IRB deemed this method ‘unorthodox,’ yet the community embraced it as a genuine act of respect.

“This example reminds us that consent is not about merely checking a box; it is about engaging with the local practices and cultural codes that define understanding and trust.”

When talking about power and representation, he raised questions such as “Who benefits? If research does not serve the community being studied, who does it serve?” In terms of ownership, Gunderson said it is important to define the differences between appreciation and appropriation. The key, he said, is to advocate for policies that reduce the potential for exploitation.

During discussion of the fourth topic, accountability, he also addressed concerns around collaboration. Musicology researchers should involve the communities in every step of the process, even when other disciplines are included in the study.

Okonkwo followed Gunderson’s talk by posing questions to him and offering his own insights on the issues covered. Okonkwo is a scholar and a comparatist student of African and African American Literature, and he also teaches courses and publishes work on the intersections of literature and music.

One of his academic goals, he explains, is to further diversify and strengthen the English department’s curriculum, especially in the field of African literature.

The 30-minute segment was one of three topics discussed at the symposium. The other two were Agatha Christie and Ethical Ambiguity and Ethics in Research at Los Alamos.

“I cannot tell you how much I appreciate College of Arts and Sciences Dean Sam Huckaba’s encouragement of interdisciplinarity among our fields, faculty, and students,” Okonkwo says. “I feel at home in the College of Music, just as I do in the English department. At this event, I was among disciplinary cousins.”

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