Benjamin Court

Benjamin Court is a musicologist, educator, critic, and musician living in Los Angeles and Lecturer in the Departments of Music and Musicology at UCLA. Benjamin’s research explores the politics of musical amateurism and expertise through a synthesis of material history, continental philosophies of knowledge, and critical theories of epistemology. He received his Ph.D. in Musicology from UCLA in 2017. His dissertation, “The Politics of Musical Amateurism, 1968-1981,” explores the politics of musical knowledge and expertise in the 1970s through a synthesis of material history, continental philosophies of knowledge, and critical theories of epistemology. The chapter “Make Sure They Can’t Play: The Sex Pistols’ Amateur Anti-music” received the Herman and Celia Wise Award for Best Dissertation Chapter from the UCLA Department of Musicology. Benjamin has also published and presented on punk, experimental music, musical ontologies, aesthetic singularity, and is in the early stages of a new book project about the global spread of Chicago Footwork. He is also a graduate of the UCLA Program in Experimental Critical Theory and an active member of the American Musicological Society and Royal Music Association Music and Philosophy Study Groups. In 2015, Benjamin was honored to receive the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award. Benjamin is also an active composer/performer of experimental music and a novice Chicago Footwork dancer.