Dear reader,

I get dozens of emails every single day, many inquiring about the Center, our grad program, and my own work. I simply cannot answer this volume of email personally and still get anything else done. So, in the spirit of our very successful Grad Program FAQ, I've posted the following personal FAQ.

Some of what's below may sound harsh. I don't mean it that way. I'm just being honest about my generic response to these typical kinds of inquiry. I can't deal with all the email I get, so triage is necessary. Don't take it personally!

Please note well: if I answer a question below, I will no longer respond to emails that ask the same question. Please read below before you contact me by email.

Thanks!

Aaron Fox, Director,
Center for Ethnomusicology
and Assoc. Prof. of Music
Columbia University

click here to read the full FAQ

_____________________

Q. How can I learn more about the PhD program in ethnomusicology at Columbia?

A. Read our Grad Program's FAQ in detail. Almost any question I've ever received about the program is answered there (go on, try to stump it!).

Q. I am a musician/ performer/ group/ representative of a performer, and want to get a gig at Columbia. Can you help?

A. The short answer is, usually and sadly, no. The Center sponsors or co-sponsors 5 to 10 performance events a year, usually on a limited budget and a modest scale. I get inquiries every single day from famous and obscure artists and their reps, often assuming the Center controls big budgets and large performance venues. We do not, and if you have to talk in thousands and not hundreds of dollars, we probably can't afford you and you should contact either the Columbia Arts Initiative office or the Miller Theater office (who may then contact me for advice or co-sponsorship). If you offer something very special or uniquely suited to our setting and mission, then contact me professionally, by sending a press kit (bio, information, reviews, recording(s), typical charges, available dates) by postal (snail) mail, to the address listed under the "contact/directions" link on the left side main menu of this page. I will get in touch with you if I see possibilities, so please don't follow up with calls or emails. I can almost never answer email or phone inquiries seeking a gig. I've beaten the pavement looking for gigs as a performer, so I know how tough it is. But I'm not a promoter or a club owner and a university is a complicated and expensive place to put on a show.

A final piece of advice: if you are a performer, I recommend contacting the relevant student group(s) who might be interested in booking you for a show (such as the South Asian Students Association for Hindustani musicians). Student groups have resources and access to spaces that the Center does not. We will often co-sponsor an event proposed by a student group if it fits with out mission and resources.

Q. I am a journalist and I want to interview you. How can I arrange that?

A. First, if you want to interview me about country music or American culture in general, I expect you to be somewhat familiar with my published work on the subject. If -- after wading through some of my work -- you are seriously interested in interviewing me, send (by email) me a rough precis of the proposed article (indicating whether it's on assignment or on spec),a list of sample questions, your own resume or vita (with sample publications I can review online), and assure me that you will use (and allow me to use, separately if necessary) a tape recorder and allow me to review all quotations before publication. At the moment, I am really tapped out on the question "(Why) Is there/isn't there country music in New York City?" I don't know, and that's the truth. My opinion on the question isn't worth more than anyone else's, and there are experts on the subject who aren't me. My answer is always some version of "there's a lot of country music in New York, probably because the music industry doesn't think there's any."

Q. Does the Center have any (whatever)music in its archives? Can I get copies or gain electronic access to these recordings?

A. Before you ask me this sort of question, please download the metaindex of Center audio holdings and search for what you want. Only under rare and exceptional circumstances will it be possible to use Center archive holdings without actually visiting the Center in person. All uses of our archive are bound by strict conditions on appropriate scholarly use. I cannot answer general inquiries ("Do you have any Cambodian music?") that are not seeking specific items listed on our metaindex. We will never license Center archive holdings for publication or comercial recording projects, so don't ask. Non-profit projects should ask, but do not expect "most favored nation" status with respect to rights and limitations.

I am happy to entertain (and indeed encourage) inquiries from agents or members of communities or descendants of performers represented in our archives. Please be patient when making such inquiries. Record companies, documentary film makers, curious composers, and so forth, should approach me with specific inquiries only. We take the intellectual and cultural property rights vested in our archive very, very seriously, and in a manner that is usually discouraging to folks looking to license or work with our archives. Any licensed use will entail specific restrictions and may entail payment to descendants or communities with an interest in the music licensed.

Q. I'm making a film/writing a book/producing a show/suing over a copyright violation. Can I pick your brain?

A. Probably not, unless you are doing a strictly scholarly or non-profit project. If your project is commercial, I need to be paid. If it's half-baked, cook it all the way and then ask me to taste the sauce. I can't help you brainstorm if you aren't my student or a close colleague. My published work can help you brainstorm. Or come take one of my classes.

Q. I need a letter of recommendation. Will you write for me?

A. I will write letters for my current and former graduate and undergraduate students, and for colleagues coming up for tenure or applying for a job, if:
a) I feel I can write something detailed and constructive
b) There is no conflict if I am writing for someone else
c) You give me at least 30 days notice before a deadline
d) You send me (in a single email message) all relevant information, including the address and deadline and a description of what I am recommending you for, as well as your application letter or essay and/or transcrpts and/or copies of work done in one or more of my classes, if applicable.
e) You provide a stamped, addressed envelope if mail submission is required.
f) You waive your right to see the letter I write, if that is an option, on the relevant application form. I will never write a letter for which that right is not waived. Period.

Q. Are there adjunct teaching opportunities for me at Columbia?

A. If you are a PhD-holding ethnomusicologist/musical anthropologist in New York, and you are looking for adjunct teaching work, please send me a complete CV and a brief note of introduction. We rarely have adjunct teaching positions, and when we do we have a roster of folks to take them in most cases. I will hold CVs on file and get in touch with you if there's something to discuss.

We do not normally hire performance teachers with whom we don't already have a relationship. Please don't write looking for a gig teaching people to play an instrument or a style of music (unless you are an expert performer of Japanese Gagaku, at the moment).

Q. Can I come see you and pitch my publishing company's latest textbook?

A. No. Really. I don't teach with textbooks.  And I despise the way the textbook industry operates.

Q. I am looking for "bright, energetic, motivated" student interns willing to work for nothing. Can you recommend someone?

A. No, never, really. Not unless you're paying them, and the internship has genuine educational value as well. I do not believe in unpaid internships and think they are an insult to students disguised as educationally valuable "experience." Don't even think of asking me this question. Work is worth money, even if it offers a truly valuable experience.

Q. Are there volunteer opportunities at the Center? Is there paid work at the Center?

A. If you have a very specialized skill set (let's say you speak Navajo or can do advanced database programming or are an intellectual property law student or sharp web designer), and are seriously interested in ethnomusicology or traditional musics, we should talk. As indicated above, I prefer to pay people who work for us. Alas, I can't afford to pay people with expensive and specialized talents what they deserve. So give me a shout if you'd like to volunteer or work for what we can afford to offer you.

Paid work, when available, generally goes to CU/Barnard students first. We do occasionally employ others with special skills as consultants or on contract. Otherwise, any open employment opportunities will be announced on the Center website's front page

Q. Can I get on/off the Center's (e -) mailing list?

A. Yes, just send me an email with "add to mailing list" in the subject line. However, please note that our website is always the best place to stay abreast of our events and news.

Q. Does the Center buy (or accept donations of) privately held archives of recordings or instruments?

A. We never buy collections. We are limited in our ability to accept collections for the archive by our staffing, budget, and facilities. We do occasionally accept collections, but only if they have an exceptional value to scholarship and do not duplicate materials held in other major archives in the US -- and if we can manage them physically. If you would like to approach us about depositing materials here, please give me at least a rough inventory of the collection in question, a sense of its physical dimensions and condition, its location, and flag any especially significant items. In most cases, accepting a collection for the archive is impossible unless the gift includes funding for cataloging and care of the materials. You may wish to approach the Archive of Contemporary Music, also in New York City, or the Columbia University Libraries as well.

Q. Will you review a book manuscript for our press or an article manuscript for our journal?

A. I'm really, really busy these days and take very few review assignments. I will only review books and papers for publication that are directly within my own areas of expertise (ethnomusicology, American music, country music, linguistic anthropology), and then only if I am allowed at least 3 or 4 months to complete the review. If you're in a bigger hurry than that, I'm not the reviewer for you. I do expect remuneration for book manuscript reviews.

Q. Will you write a book review for our journal?

A. At the moment (Spring 2007) I am not accepting any book review assignments for journals.

Q. Will you join our panel for a conference as a discussant/presenter?

A. I go to AAA every year. I go to SEM if it is possible. I do not go to other national meetings these days. This year (2007) I am already committed to a AAA panel and am not available to join any SEM panels because it would conflict with my duties as a member of the meeting program committee. So for now, the answer has to be no.

Q. We'd like to invite you to come give a talk. What do you say?

A. I will speak on current research interests if you pay all of my travel expenses and at least a $350 honorarium for a one-day visit, or $500 for a two-day visit with up to 3 events. I can't justify the time it takes to travel and talk for less at the moment. I require a decent hotel if I travel to give a talk.

Q. Will you serve on a grant-review committee or evaluate proposals for us? (outside of Columbia University)

A. Only if I have previously done so for a specific agency or grant program in the past. At the moment, I can rarely do this otherwise.

Q. Will you serve on a non-Columbia dissertation committee?

A. Yes, but only if the dissertation is squarely in one of my areas of specialization. I must have at least 30 days to review a dissertation draft. I will only travel for a defense if all travel expenses are paid.

Q. Can I sit in on or audit one of your classes if I am not at Columbia?

A. Columbia does not permit auditing by non-matriculated students, so I do not permit auditors. You may visit one of my classes if you are considering our graduate program or are a student in another PhD program, if you give me 2 weeks notice by email. This is my personal policy. My colleagues may have other policies and should be contacted individually if you plan to visit our program.

Q. Can I interview you about your signing of the CUFACT petition calling for a new level of attention to governance issues at Columbia?

A. No.  I signed the petition primarily because I believe the academic tenure review process is designed to be insulated from the vagaries of political opinion and mob agitation, and I am concerned that my university do more to defend that process in the climate of the moment in the US. Secondarily, I was troubled that our president spoke rudely to the president of Iran last month, undermining his eloquent defense of the original invitation of the Iranian leader and costing the university's reputation significantly. I am in less than full agreement about some of the other points in the petition, but it was a consensus-based document and I am in agreement with its general message.    The university is a place where unpopular opinions can be heard and responded to rationally. And as a global institution, Columbia University is accountable to a global public, so the question of what "popular" opinions even are is subject to debate.  Rabble-rousing mob-recruiting politics that seek to scapegoat the professoriate and the university should have no influence on our governance and should stiffen our resolve to stand on our principles of free, rational, and open discourse. 

I await the jaundiced right-wing character assassinations of myself and my colleagues sure to come.  But I have nothing else to say. 

AES and AESonline-related queries

Q.

More to come.