ABOUT US
The Sound of Victory (SOV) is an interdisciplinary, multi-platform project dedicated to investigating the deeply-intertwined relationship between music, sound and sport. Led by Courtney M. Cox, Assistant Professor in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon, and Perry B. Johnson, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Media at Risk and the Annenberg Center for Collaborative Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, SOV interrogates the historical intersection of music, sound, and sport to further explore questions of citizenship, community, history, and culture, with a particular focus on issues of authenticity, identity, belonging, space/place, mythology, inclusion/exclusion, power and political economy. Bridging interdisciplinary research projects, multimedia productions, and public events, SOV seeks to foster connections between faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from UO, USC, and beyond, with key actors from across the music and sporting industries. SOV works to address key gaps in music and sport knowledge by providing resources for researchers, students, and educators, and sharing new insights into the historical connection between music and sport through the publication of research, and the organization of related programs, panels, and events.
SOV considers such questions as: What is the historical relationship between music, sound, and sport? How do musical and sporting intersections (in)form historical and contemporary understandings of space and place? How can we reimagine the “politics of play” through examinations of music and sport? How can an interrogation of music and sport together offer us new understandings of culture and history? How does the study and analysis of music and sport—as intertwined spheres of entertainment—offer an under-researched entry point for new theoretical and intellectual contributions to such fields as: Music, Sport, Sound Studies, Communication, Cultural Studies, American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Performance Studies, Media Studies, and Feminist Theory?
Previous support for this project has been provided in part by the Popular Music Project at USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center, the USC Graduate School, and through an Annenberg Doctoral Student Summer Research Fellowship.
Team
Courtney M. Cox
Project Director
Dr. Courtney M. Cox is an assistant professor in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon. Her research examines issues related to labor, identity, and technology through sport. She is the author of the forthcoming book Double Crossover: Mobilizing Gender and Labor in Global Basketball. Her previous education includes a Bachelor of Journalism from The University of Texas at Austin's Moody College of Communication, a MA in Journalism from UT, and a PhD from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She previously worked for ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut and Austin, Texas (with Longhorn Network) and spent time at NPR-affiliate KPCC in Pasadena, California and the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks.
cmcox at uoregon dot edu
Dr. Cox’s walk-up song:
Perry B. Johnson
Project Director
Dr. Perry B. Johnson is a music scholar and cultural historian. Her primary research and practice focus on music, popular culture and American cultural histories, with an emphasis on archives, public scholarship, power, identity and belonging. She is at work on the manuscript for her first book, a cultural history of sexual misconduct in America’s popular music industries and working to develop an accompanying digital database that captures and maps allegations and incidents of misconduct.
Johnson received her Ph.D. from USC Annenberg, where she had a graduate affiliation in the Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies and was a research fellow with The Popular Music Project at USC Annenberg's Norman Lear Center. Prior to returning to Annenberg as lecturer, Johnson was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Media at Risk with a joint appointment at the Annenberg Center for Collaborative Communication at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.
pbjohnso at usc dot edu
Dr. Johnson’s walk-up song:
Joshua Bloom
Project Assistant (2022 - 2023)
Joshua Bloom is a Junior in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics, with a concentration in Marketing and Communications and a minor in Popular and Jazz Music. Josh’s passion for music, media, and entertainment has led him to pursue a unique combination of courses, extracurricular activities, and internships focused on developing the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to innovate within the entertainment industry. Josh has delved into the many aspects of the music industry, including its intersection with culture, identity, business, and technology, and is excited to join the interdisciplinary SOV team and support its mission to explore the relationship among music, sound, and sport.
Joshua’s walk-up song:
Byon Kea
Project Assistant (2021 -2022)
Nora Youn
Project Assistant (2022)
Ia Balbuena
Project Assistant (2019-2020)
Byon Kea is a senior at the University of Oregon, majoring in Psychology with a minor in Ethnic Studies. Academically, Byon is interested in how mindfulness-based practices can improve modern therapy. His involvement in race and Ethnic Studies coursework is centered around his passion for further understanding how race informs our social reality. Byon joined the SOV team because of the project’s unique perspective on culture, and how the worlds of sport and music reveal intricacies that explain and encapsulate the human condition.
Byon’s walk-up song:
Nora (Junga) Youn is a Sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Political Science. She is interested in society in general, ranging from anthropology to global geopolitics. She’s focusing on political science for now to focus on current events and learn the mechanisms of creating tangible change through politics, but hopes to explore many other branches of the social science and humanities. Nora is also a musician and composer: she composes and manages marketing for Penn’s composing club Penn Compose, wrote about music for Penn’s arts and culture magazine 34st Street, and has been a violinist for eight years. Nora joined the Sound of Victory project because it combines her interest in society, culture, and music.
Nora’s walk-up song:
Ia Balbuena is a Junior at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. She is majoring in Advertising and minoring in Women and Gender Studies. Her coursework through the SOJC is helping her learn creative communication skills and pushing her to think outside the box, while her WGS coursework is equipping her with the history and language to articulate messages to people at all intersections of life in ways that are effective for their communities. Specifically, Ia is interested in the qualitative research that explores the ways in which different forms of media and culture interact with one another. She aspires to work within a creative agency that is driven by a passion to create ideas, initiatives, movements and works for social good.
You can find out more about Ia here on Twitter (@Iabalbuena1344) and Instagram (@iabalbuena).