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SEM{STUDENTNEWS} An official publication of the Society for Ethnomusicology MUSIC AND DIASPORA Welcome! A Letter from the Editor 1 SEM Reports 2 Student Voices 3 The State of the Field 4 Dear SEM 7 Discerning Diaspora 9 Diaspora, Globalization, Transnationalism, Oh My! 10 The Fate of Diaspora 12 The Diaspora Nyunga Nyunga Mbira 13 Songs of a Lost Tribe 14 Diaspora and Technology 15 Towards an Ethnography of the ‘Diaspora’ 17 Reflections on Multi-Sited Ethnographies: Volume 10 | Spring/Summer 2015 Volume An Interview with Deborah Wong 18 Join your peers by ‘liking’ us on Diasporic Sounds: A Resource List 21 Facebook, and get Our Staff 24 the latest updates and calls for submissions! information for cover image found on page 24 Musical Diasporas, Diasporic Musics To our faithful readers and those that “home”—my knowledge base are quite unique, but as the perusing our pages for the first of these issues has grown in photographer of the above image time, welcome to Volume 10 of editing this volume. It is my hope points out, they are indeed SEM Student News. Within that yours will too. I am pleased diasporic—representing the ethnomusicology and cognate to say that we had numerous Atlantic experience and the New disciplines, the term “diaspora” responses to our calls for World experience—of African has been problematized and submission, and we look forward Americans working within these defended, substituted and to continued engagement with communities. This nuanced accepted; here, our contributors both student and professional understanding of diaspora lends engage with the issues and current ethnomusicologists. For this agency to the community and trends of diaspora music studies, volume, the discussion on avoids resorting to broad labels or broadly defined, and you will find diaspora took many forms and outsider assumptions. Many of a variety of problems, solutions, each editorial brings to light the thoughts shared in this and case studies that deal with questions regarding both volume center on this idea of such ideas. As a researcher whose communities’ positions as well as self-identification and the primary focus has not been on the researchers’ positions understanding of complex disaporic communities in the concerning “diasporic” identity. emotional, cultural, and traditional sense—peoples This volume’s cover image is a historical processes. * displaced from a “homeland” but prime example. The Mardi Gras By Justin R. Hunter (University of retaining (or not) cultural ties to Indian traditions in New Orleans Hawai‘i at M"noa) Society for Ethnomusicology © !1 SEM Reports announcements, conference calls, new initiatives By Justin R. Hunter (University of Hawai‘i at M"noa) In this column we call attention to exciting ways for you, as a student and scholar, to get involved in SEM and beyond. From conference announcements to publication news, this column is your go-to place for updates and information to become more active as an ethnomusicologist. If you have announcements, calls for participation, or new programs that should be included in an upcoming volume, contact us at [email protected]. Conferences in 2015: Sound Matters: SEM’s online publication, • College Music Society International Conference Sound Matters, hosted on the SEM website, offers June 17–24, Stockholm, Sweden & Helsinki, Finland Vol. 10 | Spring/Summer 2015 Vol. content on a variety of subjects related to music, sound, and ethnomusicology. The publication seeks • British Forum for Ethnomusicology & Société lively and accessible posts that provide stimulating Française d’Ethnomusicologie (joint conference) reading for both specialists and general readers. They July 2–5, Paris, France encourage authors to consider this an opportunity to • Congress on Dance Research & Society for transcend the boundaries of traditional print with Dance History Scholars (joint conference) brief writings that may integrate hyperlinks and July 4–7, Athens, Greece multimedia examples. {STUDENTNEWS} • International Council for Traditional Music Possibilities for Sound Matters include research July 16–22, Astana, Kazakhstan vignettes, profiles of cultural organizations, SEM interviews, working notes, roundtables, virtual • Society for Music Theory symposia, and meditations on timely subjects that October 29–November 1, St. Louis, Missouri encourage responses. Content is moderated by the • College Music Society & Association for editor, who may also consult outside reviewers. Technology in Music Instruction For more information, visit the Sound Matters page. November 5–7, Indianapolis, Indiana • American Musicological Society November 12–15, Louisville, Kentucky Connect with SEM Student News • American Anthropological Association on Facebook and at SEM November 18–22, Denver, Colorado • Society for Ethnomusicology December 3–6, Austin, Texas SEM Student Union Blog: The SU blog celebrated its first anniversary/birthday this past February. The blog has seen some exciting projects in Stay Current with SEM: SEM encourages the past year: In Discipline, a multi-lingual series you to join or renew now to get the most out of your aimed at sharing the experiences of ethnomusicology membership! Student memberships are $40 and run students throughout Europe; a collaboration with the from January to December. Members receive WannaBeEthno bloggers, who are associated with the significantly reduced conference registration fees ($90 SU undergraduate committee and work to speak vs. $130), access to the website Members’ Area and directly to undergraduate student concerns; and a SEM Newsletter, hard copies of Ethnomusicology for the new project we are launching in June on year, and discounts with major publishers, including Ethnomusicology and Parenthood, which will share Smithsonian Folkways and Oxford University Press! the thoughts and experiences of students who started You also get to help determine the future of our society families while pursuing their degrees. From Liza and field by participating in our annual Board and Munk, Ana-María Alarcón-Jiménez, Jennie Williams, Council election. Memberships can be purchased online and Heather Strohschein: thank you to everyone for at www.ethnomusicology.org. Feel free to contact your support, encouragement, and ideas. For more Jennifer Studebaker at [email protected] if you have information and to suggest blog topics, please contact any questions or help logging in. us at [email protected]. Society for Ethnomusicology © !2 Student Voices STUDENT UNION words from sem students LEADERSHIP: By José R. Torres-Ramos (University of North Texas) Deonte Harris Chair The SEM Student Union is actively working with SEM Student News to University of California, develop a platform for student thoughts and concerns. For this volume on Los Angeles diaspora, we approached students whose research experiences offered a sense [email protected] of some of the issues concerning this topic, representing various roles as José R. Torres-Ramos insiders and outsiders, practitioners and novices, as well as the use of Vice Chair numerous methodologies for understanding the relationships between music, University of North Texas diaspora, and identity. This theme of music and diaspora is both intriguing [email protected] and challenging within the field of ethnomusicology, particularly for many Vol. 10 | Spring/Summer 2015 Vol. students working within this paradigm. Music is central to the diasporic Alice Rogers Secretary/Treasurer experience, linking migrants’ current place of residence with their place of University of Maryland, origin, often forming a collective musical memory. Conceptually, however, College Park disapora is problematic in that it usually implies a process of moving outwards, [email protected] typically, from a geographical, cultural and/or “racial” origin (Wade 2008). The point of origin is often key to the definition of diaspora, without which Ameera Nimjee the concept descends into generalized incoherence (Brubaker 2005). Member-at-Large University of Chicago {STUDENTNEWS} Many graduate students encounter multiple issues that complicate [email protected] conceptualizations of diaspora in their research. Julia Topper, a graduate SEM student at the University of Maryland, finds diaspora to be misleading with regards to her work on Irish step dance in Japan. She states, “I am not studying a group of people who reside away from their homeland, but a dance CONNECT WITH THE STUDENT UNION ON tradition that has been transplanted and is practiced outside its place of origin FACEBOOK by people who are not native to the tradition” (pers. comm. 2015). She questions if musical traditions can be considered disasporic or if the term disaspora should be reserved exclusively for people. This problematic strikes a distinct chord within my own research on the mariachi tradition among migrant communities. As a transnational music form, mariachi is performed and celebrated by Mexicans and Mexican Americans on both sides of the border. However, in Fort Worth, migrant communities from Nochistlán (a rural pueblo in Central Mexico) hires native ensembles from the region, bringing them to the United States in lieu of hiring local groups which are seen as inauthentic. In this instance, regional context becomes a definitive factor for music and musicians acting as “sign-vehicles” for identity among particular Mexican diasporic communities. Yet mariachi retains a strong presence among generational Mexican American communities who arguably do not share the same diasporic experience.