Ethnomusicology

Ethnomusicology at Florida State offers a stimulating and challenging academic environment in which internationally renowned faculty members work closely with graduate students, providing extensive opportunities in research, teaching, performance, and other practical skills necessary for a successful career in the discipline. The program encompasses a broad spectrum of global musicultural traditions – contemporary and historical – with particular strengths in musics of Africa and the African diaspora, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia (especially Indonesia), the Middle East, and Central Asia. FSU is at the forefront of research in medical ethnomusicology, with additional strong theoretical foci in music and human rights, the ethnomusicology of film, music and race/gender/ethnicity, music and religion/spirituality, musicultural transformation processes, music and children, music and autism, global popular music, jazz, improvisation, multicultural music education, music as identity and resistance, and cognitive, historical, and applied ethnomusicology.

Studies in ethnomusicology extend to a close interaction with historical musicology, and also to a deep integration of research and scholarship with performance. Ensemble and study opportunities are offered in African and Chinese musics, Balinese gamelan, salsa, steel band, and additional performance areas. Both traditional and contemporary/experimental repertories are performed. Two world music festivals and the impressive Rainbow Concert of World Music are presented annually. Performance, research, and teaching activities are all supported by a large music instrument collection and an ethnomusicology archive, as well as by the extensive holdings of the Warren D. Allen Music Library.

The ethnomusicology program has a near-100% field placement record for Ph.D. graduates, with alumni holding positions at universities and colleges nationwide and internationally. Current graduate students have frequently presented their research at major national and international meetings and in scholarly publications, and doctoral students gain valuable experience teaching a full range of undergraduate core courses for music majors and general University students, yielding several years of classroom experience to bring to their first faculty positions.

The Society for Musicology is a student-run organization of all musicology students, both historical and ethno, that sponsors events throughout the academic year to address the interests and concerns of the members. Activities in recent years include:

• trial paper presentations for students whose papers will be presented at professional conferences; this enables the students to test their papers on a “friendly” audience.
• mock job interviews
• workshops on writing CVs and cover letters
• special session on how to teach listening in music lit. and history classes
• how to make up exams