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Volume 54, Number 3 Summer 2020 Beverley Diamond to Deliver 2020 Charles Seeger Lecture C. Kati Szego, Memorial University of Newfoundland The 2020 Charles Seeger Lecture will be delivered by music studies by offering new approaches to historiog- Beverley Diamond, Professor Emerita of Ethnomusicology raphy, shifting musical emphases, and illuminating the at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Prior to taking power that academics wield through their assumptive and up the first Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Ethnomu- interpretive choices. sicology at Memorial in 2002, Bev taught at York University In 2000, Bev co-edited Music (Toronto, 1988–2001), Queen’s & Gender (U Illinois P) with University (Kingston, 1975–88), Pirkko Moisala. While theirs and McGill University (Mon- was not the first volume on that treal, 1973–75). Bev completed topic in our field (Koskoff 1987; all her degrees, in musicology Herndon & Ziegler 1990), it and ethnomusicology, at the broke new ground. Music & University of Toronto. Gender was remarkable both for its authors’ use of feminist A Canadian, most of Bev theory and for its recognition of Diamond’s research has taken ethnocentrism and class bias in place within the country’s bor- feminist theory. The productive ders. Offering nuanced analy- tension of that interstitial space ses in a non-polemical voice, characterizes a great deal of much of her writing addresses Photo courtesy of Beverly Diamond. Bev’s work. As she wrote in her the creative moves of musicians—some own article in that collection, “feminist who call themselves Canadian and many who don’t—that scholars should not debate as much as relate the es- speak to the myriad conditions of colonialism, globaliza- sentialist to the constructionist, acknowledging both the tion, and patriarchy. Each of her multitudinous articles, co- hegemonic struggle and strategic uses of the former while edited volumes, and books address one or more topical attempting to validate the latter” (132). areas: gender; technological production and mediation; expressions of Indigenous modernity in Inuit, First Na- First steps toward establishing socially responsible part- tions, Métis, Australian Aboriginal, and Sámi communities; nerships with First Peoples and the scholarly community Indigenous intellectual property; and Canadian settler were taken with Bev’s sprawling SPINC (Sound Producing musics. Instruments in Native Communities) project, begun in the late 1980s. As Bev recalls, “I formed the SPINC group… A few examples help to tell some of her story. because I really felt I needed people to talk to about... my struggle to work ethically in First Nations contexts.” She In the 1980s and early 90s, Bev was asking incisive ques- invited two former students to form a research team, the tions about the biases and values that framed accounts of published outcome of which was Visions of Sound (Wilfrid Canada’s musical history, including those that advanced Laurier UP and U Chicago P 1994). Visions of Sound set an uncritical, romantic discourse about Canadian multicul- the stage for a “new organology”; it was equally venture- turalism. Gathering scholarship across the musicologies some in its experiments with graphic representation, and humanities, Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony reflexivity, and dialogism—between the investigators and and Identity (Canadian Scholars’ P, 1994)—her co-edited their First Nations consultants and between co-investiga- volume with Robert Witmer—helped reset Canadian tors. Visually complex and quirky, [continued on p.6] Features Reports News Our Back Pages President’s Column ATM China Project SEM News Advertisements 2020 Charles Seeger Lecturer: Notes from the Field Member News SEM Publications Beverley Diamond Methods for Music Ethnography Institutional News Internet Resources 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting in and of Crisis Conference Calendar The Society for Ethnomusicology, SEM Newsletter James Cowdery, Editor, SEM Newsletter SEM Membership RILM, CUNY Graduate Center The object of the Society for Ethnomusicology is the ad- 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016 vancement of research and study in the field of ethnomu- [email protected] sicology, for which purpose all interested persons, regard- less of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, SEM Newsletter is a vehicle for the exchange of ideas, or physical ability are encouraged to become members. news, and information among the Society’s members. Its aims include serving the membership and Society at Readers’ contributions are welcome and should be sent to large through the dissemination of knowledge concerning the editor. the music of the world’s peoples. The Society, incorporat- ed in the United States, has an international membership. The Society for Ethnomusicology publishes the SEM Newsletter four times annually in January, April, July, and Members receive free copies of the journal and the September, and distributes issues free to members of the newsletter and have the right to vote and participate in the Society. activities of the Society. _______________ Back issues, 1981 to present [volumes 14-18 (1981- Student (full-time only) (one year) ................................$40 1984), 3 times a year; vols. 19-32 (1985-1998), 4 times a Individual (one year) year] are available and may be ordered at $2 each. 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Madrid (First Vice President) Cornell University Full page: $200 1/3 page: $60 2/3 page: $145 1/6 page: $40 Lei Ouyang Bryant (Second Vice President) 1/2 page: $110 Swarthmore College Sarah Morelli (Member-at-Large, Prizes) Ethnomusicology: Back Issues University of Denver Ethnomusicology, the Society’s journal (ISSN 0036-1291), is currently published three times a year. Back issues Jean Ngoya Kidula (Member-at-Large, Groups & Profes- are available through the SEM Business Office, Indiana sional Development) University, 800 East 3rd Street, Bloomington, IN, 47405- University of Georgia§ 3657; 812-855-6672; [email protected].§ 2 Unprecedented and Meaningful Change Tim Cooley, SEM President SEM must change. Now is the time. There are no quick While too often blind and deaf to the racism that supports fixes. The process will be painful, yet the social, moral, my privilege, I cannot remain silent and complicit. I am lis- and scholarly costs of not changing are too great. SEM tening. One repeated message of hope I have heard from cannot claim to be an antiracist organization, and we have Tammy Kernodle, President of the Society of American not yet come to terms with the colonial Music, is that crises prepare our societ- and imperial legacies that still shape ies for change that otherwise would be core activities of our scholarly society as much more difficult to achieve. Crises an institution. SEM as an institution and disrupt the status quo and therein lies I as its current President have ignored, opportunity. Three global crises present dismissed, suppressed, and harmed us with unprecedented opportunities many of our members with racist acts, for systemic changes, including for our the reinscriptions of hegemonic power, scholarly societies. The climate crisis and the active and complicit protection demands that we reimagine how we of the status quo and thus white su- use and share resources across the premacy. I apologize on behalf of myself board, including the carbon footprints and SEM. I must do better. We must do of our research, teaching, advocating, better. and conferencing practices. But how to address the asymmetrical impact of the I will start by thanking all of you who climate crisis on the poorest and most have privately and publicly come for- vulnerable individuals and communi- ward to point out the many ways that ties around the world and in our towns? white privilege continues to be maintained within SEM. The coronavirus pandemic forced us to make immediate I am especially grateful to our Black, Indigenous,