Keep Austin Academic
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the annual conference of the Society for Ethnomusicology. It's always in a different city, and this year it happened to be only three hours away, in Austin, Texas. I drove down with a colleague from the Center for Excellence in World Arts, and I had a fantastic time at the conference. What is it like attending an SEM conference?
[Brace yourself.]
We spend long days sitting in hotel conference rooms, listening to people read papers about their latest ethnomusicological research.
In our free time, we mill about in the hallways outside the hotel conference rooms, talking with people about the papers that we've just heard.
And now you're wondering: Was I joking about it being a fantastic time, or was I joking about what happens at an SEM conference?
Neither! It is truly wonderful to spend long days being refreshed and re-energized by hearing about the amazing work other ethnomusicologists are doing, and getting a sense of the current issues and trends in the field.
These gatherings are also great times to reconnect with old friends I only see once a year (at most--it's been a few years since I've attended an SEM conference, so there was a lot of catching up to do with friends). I spent time with people who work in Mali, Kenya, Belize, India, Australia, Nepal, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, and all over the US and Canada. I also heard fascinating presentations about many aspects of music, including:
[Brace yourself.]
We spend long days sitting in hotel conference rooms, listening to people read papers about their latest ethnomusicological research.
In our free time, we mill about in the hallways outside the hotel conference rooms, talking with people about the papers that we've just heard.
And now you're wondering: Was I joking about it being a fantastic time, or was I joking about what happens at an SEM conference?
Neither! It is truly wonderful to spend long days being refreshed and re-energized by hearing about the amazing work other ethnomusicologists are doing, and getting a sense of the current issues and trends in the field.
These gatherings are also great times to reconnect with old friends I only see once a year (at most--it's been a few years since I've attended an SEM conference, so there was a lot of catching up to do with friends). I spent time with people who work in Mali, Kenya, Belize, India, Australia, Nepal, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, and all over the US and Canada. I also heard fascinating presentations about many aspects of music, including:
- How music reflects and creates identity (individual, ethnic, national, religious)
- Many ways that Christian worship is contextualized in cultures all over the world (SEM is not a Christian organization, but there were a lot of presentations this year that touched on some part of music in the Christian experience)
- The struggles of contemporary music composers in non-Western countries
- Changes in the foundations of the undergraduate music major in American colleges
- The role of community radio stations in the presentation and preservation of minority musical styles
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