The dissertation examines how contemporary Beninois musicians reconfigure their music in post-colonial networks of power and economics locally and internationally, particularly through the interplay ...of entrepreneurship, musical style, and spirituality. Literature in ethnomusicology has dealt with relationships between musical style and spirituality in West Africa, and recent literature in anthropology has explored the marketing of culture. Scholarship on these topics has tended to separate the aesthetic from the material, so that while musical style and spirituality are analyzed together, they are often removed from cultural economy and popular music. This dissertation responds to gaps in the literature by bringing analyses of aesthetic and material issues into conversation in an analysis of jazz and brass band repertoires that cross boundaries between religious and commercial, popular and traditional, and local and international. I explore how musicians creatively root their musical practices in Benin's musical traditions, and also market their own representations of these traditions abroad. In the first half of the project, I outline the historical background for Benin's music traditions. I begin in the first chapter with the kingdom of Allada and the founding of the empire of Danxome in the 17th century. I follow the arrival of vodun deities in the Danxomean court, and the founding of the dynasty in Porto Novo. The second chapter examines the effects of colonialism on religious and musical practice in Benin, and the changing values attached to these practices. In the third chapter, I discuss the development of musique moderne and musical genre in Benin after 1960. The second half of the dissertation is composed of several case studies. In the fourth chapter, I draw on ethnographic interviews and participant observation in Benin, France, and New York City to focus on the Gangbe and Eyo'nle Brass Bands' adaptation of specific Beninois popular songs and styles. The fifth chapter focuses on the creative choices and production strategies in several Gangbe and Eyo'nle compositions, particularly through an analysis of which components of language, spiritual meaning, and musical style are available to the bands' different audiences, forming “hidden” and “public” transcripts. The dissertation contributes to broader issues within African Studies, particularly regarding relationships between history and ethnography, and to understanding the production of meaning and social change within an increasingly complex and geographically diverse African diaspora. More broadly, this project seeks to be a part of a more global orientation for jazz studies that recenters Africa and African musicians as producers of meaning about race and identity.
The PI3K pathway is one of the most frequently altered signaling pathways in human cancer. In addition to its function in cancer cells, PI3K plays a complex role in modulating anti-tumor immune ...responses upon immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI). Here, we evaluated the effects of the pan-Class I PI3K inhibitor copanlisib on different immune cell types in vitro and on tumor growth and immune cell infiltration in syngeneic murine cancer models. Intermittent treatment with copanlisib resulted in a strong in vivo anti-tumor efficacy, increased tumor infiltration of activated T cells and macrophages, and increased CD8
+
T cell/regulatory T cell and
M
1/
M
2 macrophage ratios. The strong in vivo efficacy was at least partially due to immunomodulatory activity of copanlisib, as in vitro these murine cancer cells were resistant to PI3K inhibition. Furthermore, the combination of copanlisib with the ICI antibody anti-PD-1 demonstrated enhanced anti-tumor efficacy in both ICI-sensitive and insensitive syngeneic mouse tumor models. Importantly, in an ICI-sensitive model, combination therapy resulted in complete remission and prevention of tumor recurrence. Thus, the combination of ICIs with PI3K inhibition by intermittently dosed copanlisib represents a promising new strategy to increase sensitivity to ICI therapies and to treat human solid cancers.
