Pergram will present his paper “Playlisting the World: How Music, Technology, and Global Influences Impact the Culture of College Student Listeners” at the 9th Annual International Symposium on the Future of STEAM Education in Athens, Greece, in July 2025.

How do you hear the world around you? For undergraduates, developing cultural competency can be approached by challenging students to reflect on the world around them. Considering the impacts of music on how students self-identify in a worldwide context, this article details the course design decisions, pedagogical approaches, and cohort-learning models that inspire young people. By focusing on global playlisting—the art of curating, streaming, and contextualizing music from around the world—students will collect and share their musical collections in a gamified learning space.

Using popular music to understand global forces, students can explore contemporary sociocultural phenomena by studying lyrics, soundscapes, and technologies that create viral sensations. In addition, analyzing the audience of tomorrow requires scholarly considerations of current and historical topics, including investigations of power systems and their impacts on individuals and collective groups that shape musical responses.

Another core discussion topic in this paper centers on engaged learning. It is critical to offer a non-static learning space for students of the current generation in higher education. Therefore, this article showcases techniques that inspire students to engage in course material through cooperative learning. The aim is for students to think outside of their cultural-linguistic group. Therefore, several traditional aspects of learning have been adjusted to accommodate global explorations. By emphasizing creative, project-based learning, students will recognize, develop, and hone transferable skills within STEAM Education.