Haley Huett
A&E Editor
Mekdes Shiferaw
A&E Editor
Have you ever looked at your professor and thought, “there’s no way this person does anything besides cause me pain?”
Think again.
Amyaz A. Moledina, the associate professor of Economics, Business Economics, and Global and International Studies at the College has hobbies besides assigning problem sets and readings.
The transGlobal Groove Collective, Professor Moledina’s online mixtape collection, was born in collaboration with Professor Pruiksma Rose at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 2002. Described as, “The World’s Weirdest Mixtape,” Professor Moledina continues to produce mixtapes for the listening pleasure of the general public.
The transGlobal Groove Collective offers a little bit of everything. Not wanting to be confined to one genre or style, The Collective believes that the more obscure, the better. Professor Moledina describes the mixtape as “spinning heavy doses of international music that [runs] the gamut. From folk and anthropological field recordings, to Indonesian Gamelan music and Tanzanian rap!” The Collective aims to expose listeners to a broad range of musical expression, seeking out anything that people haven’t heard before.
Mixcloud, the streaming platform where The Collective can be found, features both archived radio shows and mixtapes. These radio shows, originally hosted on Woo91, often feature threads or themes in Professor Moledina’s work and life. One show, titled, “Native Nomad,” was closely tied to Professor Moledina’s Faculty College Project studying mobility and migration. “I was looking for people with allegiances to multiple countries,” Professor Moledina clarified. Another, “African Afrofutures,” was created for a class at Wooster. Other times, radio shows and mixtapes are simply born from fun conversations and ideas. One collaboration, “History of Italy Through its Music,” was created with former Wooster student Marco Roccato ’20. In all cases, Professor Moledina utilizes music and conversation to explore these topics and themes.
Professor Moledina’s eclectic taste in music stems from a diverse exposure growing up. His uncle showed him a wide variety of musicians from his own massive collection. From both Western and Bollywood influences, Professor Moledina’s appreciation for music was born.
A DJ in high school, Professor Moledina’s love of music was fostered in a time where acquiring such a broad collection was very difficult. Streaming a song from your mobile device hadn’t even been conceptualized (not to reveal his age) and Professor Moledina began his collection with vinyls and cassettes. The first vinyl record he ever bought with his allowance, he remembers, was probably “Business as Usual” by Men at Work.
What Professor Moledina values most about The Collective is the collaborative nature of the work. Before Woo91’s switch to iHeartRadio, The Collective radio show was able to incorporate other influences and co-hosts with more ease. Professor Moledina fondly remembers, “the time when students and faculty used to collaborate and make shows—with Professor Roche, Professor Shaya, and the foreign language assistants incorporating a variety of world music.”
Everything Professor Moledina produces, he produces for the benefit of the potential listener. “It’s a collective”, he says, “made with others, for others.”
The Collective’s archive can be found on Mixcloud by searching transGlobal Groove. The Collective nurtures you and won’t bring you any pain, although his classes might.
