A new class that launched this spring was a relevant and timely experience for some ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý students. With the nation debating its response to COVID-19 and witnessing protests against racial injustice and police violence, undergraduates enrolled in “Visual Anthropology of Protest Music” examined how communities use music to share their lived experiences and confront oppression.

For their final project, each student researched and produced a music video ethnography exploring an issue important to them. A selection of student work can be seen in the videos below.

The online class, taught by UW anthropology lecturer Graham Pruss — who earned a doctorate from UW in 2019 — covered grassroots movements with a focus on folk, punk and folk-punk music from a visual anthropological perspective. Students examined audio, video and literature, as well as written and oral histories of English-language musical movements from the 1500s to today.

Classes featured guest speakers from the music industry — including members of Days N Daze, Chumbawamba, Fishbone, the Gr’ups, Tchkung, Butterflies of Death, Ludlow, Are They Brothers?, Bird Teeth, Viveka, Jim Page and more. The classes were recorded and posted to YouTube, and can be

Students also learned the basics of songwriting by deconstructing familiar examples such as “,” by Childish Gambino and “” by Richard Berry. Each student created original music as well as lyrics for a popular song by Days N Daze 

The following selection of class projects is listed by video title and the name provided by the student who created it.

‘Viktor Tsoi, Folk Hero’ – by Gleb Olegovych Sych

This video about counterculture Russian singer Viktor Tsoi adds a personal touch with the video maker’s family sharing their personal experiences of Russia at that time.

‘Riot Grrrl’ – by Noelle Hardman

This video looks at the origins of the Riot Grrrl underground feminist punk movement, and how it influences music today. (Note: This video contains mature content)

‘Ululation’ – by Alvine

This video explores the phenomenon of ululation – a long, wavering high-pitched vocal sound – made around the world that is not well-known in western culture.

‘Oppression and expression’ – by Karlee Darrell Ruffin

This video offers one man’s thoughts on Black cultural expression and music.

is a doctoral candidate in the UW Department of Anthropology. He has been researching vehicle residency in Seattle for nearly a decade.

He established the Vehicle Residency Research Program at Seattle University, as well as the methodology for counting the vehicle-resident population for All Home’s annual point-in-time count, conducted on one night each January.

Pruss also contracts as the liaison for the unhoused community for the City of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods.

Read more in the related .

For more information, contact Pruss at prussg@uw.edu.

From tiny houses to encampment sweeps, from proposed business taxes to small armies of volunteers, Seattle’s homeless crisis has sparked a series of possible solutions, along with controversy.

But often missing from conversations about “homelessness,” says the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý’s , is attention to people who live in their vehicles.

More than 11,000 people are homeless in Seattle and King County, according to All Home’s . And according to more detailed data released May 31, people who live in a car, truck or camper make up about 40% of the nearly 5,300 people who are classified as “unsheltered” — those who are not currently living in emergency shelter or transitional housing.

“We need to recognize that a significant number of people are relying on a vehicle as their long-term primary shelter. But giving them a parking ticket or a simple parking space won’t fix this,” says Pruss, a doctoral candidate in the UW Department of Anthropology. “By providing inclusive space for parking in our emergency shelter system, with direct access to their wraparound services such as employment assistance and health care, we can address ending homelessness for all, including those sleeping in their vehicles tonight.”

Pruss has been researching vehicle residency in Seattle for nearly a decade. He established the at Seattle University, as well as the methodology for counting the vehicle-resident population for All Home’s annual point-in-time count, conducted on one night each January. Pruss also contracts as the liaison for the unhoused community for the City of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods. He will defend his dissertation in June.

With nightly street-parking restrictions in industrial areas and a lack of services and infrastructure for this specific population, people who live in their vehicles are an overlooked community, subject to “settled bias that exposes vehicle residents to social disaffiliation and criminalization,” Pruss says. He suggests the city include the vehicle resident population in its emergency shelter and services planning and, where appropriate, create safe parking areas, which would also provide hygiene facilities and direct connections to professional social services.

“Our job is to show that there’s an opportunity for stability,” Pruss says. “We can’t change the agency of the individual who sees their RV as a best choice for affordable housing, but we can offer healthier and more beneficial opportunities to that person and our communities.”

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For more information, contact Pruss at prussg@uw.edu.