Just Do It: Inside the Resume

David MacFadyen

Professor of Comparative Literature and Musicology, UCLA

David MacFadyen is the author of multiple books on the history of Slavic music, specifically the popular traditions of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Having begun his research in the field of Russian poetry, MacFadyen’s attention turned slowly to the role of song. This led to a number of monographs documenting the meaning of sung texts both within and without ideology during the Soviet period.

Over the same research term, a major collection of sound recordings developed, and Professor MacFadyen now oversees an archive of more than half a million compositions from Slavic, Baltic, and Central Asian lands. One impetus for that explosion of audio materials has been the rapid growth of the Russian internet – and the damage done to the music industry in the world’s biggest country. For reasons cultural, political, economic, and geographic, music has become the (illegal) fuel of Europe’s most powerful social networks. People gather in order to share, cut, and paste sounds. In studying the development of Russian music, therefore, all manner of cultural activities are dragged into the same multimedial space: literature, feature films, amateur video production, role-play gaming, and so forth. Music proves itself a vital bridge across them all; it both amplifies and enables an accelerating interface of traditions. Such rapid changes need to be documented, of course, and Professor MacFadyen operates a website dedicated to daily musical developments across nine time zones: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, and Belarus. They can all be followed at the resource “Far from Moscow”: http://www.farfrommoscow.com

Professor MacFadyen, as a reflection of these wide interests, teaches both in the Musicology and Comparative Literature Depts at UCLA. His offerings include classes dedicated to musical, literary, cinematic, and technical issues of a rapidly changing world.

Alejandra Garcia

Career Engagement Educator | UCLA Career Services

Alejandra is a proud UCLA alumni who entered university as an Undeclared Major and graduated Undecided of her career. Through assessment of her top career interests, skills, and motivations to work, she considered careers in counseling and pursued her Master of Arts in Counseling 2.5 years after graduating from UCLA. For the past couple years, she’s worked as a Career Advisor at the UCLA Career Center, where she dedicates herself to helping students clarify their career and life passions, increase their confidence in seeking diverse opportunities, and planning for their years at and beyond UCLA. Fun Fact: Her first resume was a bright orange template downloaded from Microsoft Word, and has greatly improved since she learned how to write one for herself