News from the Graduate Program in Ethnomusicology (Summer 2007)

News and congratulations from our graduate program:

1) Congratulations to Brian Karl, who has won a summer field research grant from the Middle East Institute at Columbia, and a dissertation fellowship from the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia (ISERP).

2) Congratulations to Farzaneh Hemmasi, just back from fieldwork in Toronto and LA, who has also been awarded an ISERP dissertation fellowship, and a Lane Cooper Dissertation Fellowship from the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS).

3) Congratulations to Matthew Sakakeeny, who has been awarded a Whiting Dissertation Fellowship from the Columbia University GSAS, and who has been offered a tenure-track position in music at Tulane University for 2008-9

4) Congratulations to Andrew Eisenberg, who has been offered a one-year position in music at Northwestern University while he's finishing up his dissertation next year. Andy's work has also been featured prominently on the new "Columbia and the World" website.

5) Congratulations to Columbia Ethno PhD Adriana Helbig, who has been offered a one-year position in music at University of Illinois.

6) Congratulations to Anna Stirr, who has won a PEO Sisterhood Scholarship in support of her continuing field research in Nepal. You can read about that work on Anna's website.

7) Congratulations to Morgan Luker, returning from Argentina to take up a Columbia GSAS Writing Center Fellowship while he works on his dissertation next year.

8) Congratulations to Toby King, who will be teaching at Sarah Lawrence College next year while he finishes his dissertation and directs our fabulous Bluegrass ensemble, Lion in the Grass.

9) Congratulations to David Novak, who has accepted a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Columbia University Society of Fellows in the Humanities. You can read about David's work on his SoF page.

10) We extend a warm welcome to ethnomusicologist Joshua Pilzer (PhD in Music 2005, University of Chicago, currently on the faculty of the University of California at Santa Barbara). Josh has accepted a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Music at Columbia. You can read about Josh's work here. We're also pleased to welcome Univ. of Pennsylvania Musicology PhD Laurie Silverberg to the department as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow.

11) Congratulations to Prof. Chris Washburne, who has been promoted to Associate Professor.

12) Congratulations also to Prof. Ellen Gray on the publication of her article "Memories of empire, mythologies of the soul : Fado performance and the shaping of Saudade" in Ethnomusicology, 51/1.

13) Congratulations to Matt Sakakeeny, Andy Eisenberg, and Ryan Skinner, whose panel ("Who's Listening? The Politics of Aurality in Urban Spaces"), has been accepted for presentation at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology in Columbus, Ohio.

14) Congratulations to our GSAS Departmental Dissertation Fellows, Ryan Skinner and Lauren Ninoshvili.

15) The Ethnomusicology program is delighted and proud to welcome Prof. John Szwed, who will be joining the Columbia Music Department (after many distinguished years at Yale University) this coming year. Prof. Szwed will be partially affiliated with the ethnomusicology area as well as the Columbia Center for Jazz Studies. We also congratulate our colleague, Prof. George Lewis, who has just taken over as the Co-Director of the Center for Jazz Studies, and we salute our colleague Prof. Robert O'Meally for his tireless leadership of the Center since its inception as he steps down from that role.

16) Congratulations to Elizabeth Keenan, who has had a paper accepted for presentation at the 2007 Columbus meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, and who will be teaching at Fordham this year. And running more half marathons.

17) Welcome home to all our returning students who have been in the field or on leave, and congratulate alumni Cynthia Wong and Paul Yoon, faculty member Chris Washburne, and graduate student Ryan Skinner, all of whom have added to their families in recent months, ensuring the future of ethnomusicology is safe for at least one more generation.

18) Last, but not least . . . we extend a very warm welcome to our incoming new PhD students Nili Belkind, Katherine Enoch, Shannon Garland, and Marti Newland.

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