What’s new in languages, music, sociology, & anthropology…from your librarian
July 24, 2008 at 7:58 am · Filed under Music, Sociology/Anthropology
The following announcement was posted on H-Southern-Music:
“Oh, pretty boy, Can’t you show me nothing but surrender?”: The Presence
and Importance of Women in Punk Rock
Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal welcomes the submission of
essays for an upcoming special issue focused on women and punk rock. From
Patti Smith to Annabella Lwin, the Slits, and the Go-Gos, women in punk
rock have occupied both important and contested spaces. While Patti Smith
is revered for her contributions to the nascent punk rock scene in New
York City in the 1970s, other women have not been afforded such artistic
respect. As punk rock increasingly becomes the subject of academic
discourse, the consideration of women and their importance to the genre
remains limited. How was punk changed by the presence of women like Debbie
Harry, Alice Bag, Siouxsie Sioux, or Exene Cervenka? Did women use or
contribute to punk in ways different from men? What is the legacy of punk
rock women?
Topics could include but are not limited to:
Nancy Spungen and other “dangerous” punk women
Punk rock fans and groupies
Beth Ditto and contemporary punk identities (the music may not be punk,
but the attitude is)
Vivienne Westwood and the commodification of punk fashion
Lydia Lunch and the women of the Cinema of Transgression
Susan Seidelman’s film Smithereens
Women’s Studies publishes 8 issues a year, providing a forum for the
presentation of scholarship and criticism about women in the fields of
literature, history, art, sociology, law, political science, economics,
anthropology and the sciences. It also publishes poetry, film and book
reviews.
Each manuscript must be accompanied by a statement that it has not been
published elsewhere and that it has not been submitted simultaneously for
publication elsewhere. All manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced,
one-sided, and formatted according to MLA guidelines. Essays should be
approximately 25 pages in length. Authors should also supply a shortened
version of the title for a running head, not exceeding 50 character
spaces, an abstract of approximately 100 words, the author’s affiliation
and location. Each submitted article must contain author’s mailing
address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal
Sharon Becker, Associate Editor
Claremont Graduate University
Department of English
143 East Tenth Street
Claremont, CA 91711
Email: womstudj@cgu.edu
Visit the website at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/00497878.asp
July 3, 2008 at 10:50 am · Filed under Music
In case you haven’t heard these yet, they might serve to lighten your weekend…if you dare.
Most Wanted Song
Most Unwanted Song
Funny how this showed up on my radar the day after my fave Internet radio site, Pandora.com, tried to push DeBarge’s “Rhythm of the Night” on me by saying it had “political lyrics.”
July 2, 2008 at 5:38 am · Filed under Music
The First Ever Music Education Blog Carnival has appeared, and lo & behold! it includes Heather Johnson’s guest post from Mesoj. Check out the carnival for some interesting music education blogs!
June 30, 2008 at 6:10 am · Filed under Music, Sociology/Anthropology
The following announcement appeared on the Music Library Association listserv:
Search: Journal for New Music and Culture
http://www.searchnewmusic.org/
Publisher: Search
The guiding aims of Search are those of sharing perspectives and fostering
discourse concerning the creative arts, above all the art of music.
We believe that the creative arts can serve a special role in our culture,
realizing a combination of potentials not accessible to other media: they
can expand and deepen both experiential capacities and intersubjective
understanding. They can offer paradigms of intellectual and performative
accomplishment, critically reflect upon the given, and speculate upon the
possible.
We believe that original new developments in the creative arts can offer
something of great value to our culture. However, the insight they offer
is neither instantaneous nor self-evident. A lively, informed discourse
concerning these developments is lacking and must be fostered. An
important component of this is bridging the gap between expert, specialist
audiences and a broader, non-specialist audience committed to the central
role of art in our culture.
Search will focus firstly upon sharing information about significant new
developments in music and the other arts. Our goal is to reduce the
distance - at least “virtually”- between physically, aesthetically, and
often ideologically disparate artistic cultures. To this end, the editors
welcome a broad range of articles treating the output of original and
accomplished composers, improvisers, and performers.
Technical analyses will always be welcome, but we especially encourage
articles that ground analyses in the aesthetic aims and worldview of the
artist. We also welcome input from performers regarding new developments
in performative resources for their instruments.
Furthermore, Search will exist as a forum for critical and speculative
assessments not only of the work of individual artists and artistic
movements, but also of the state of the art form and its possible roles
and responsibilities in society.
Email: searchjournal@gmail.com
Note:
Although the website states “Search will be published online three times
per year. Isolated articles and abstracts will be offered to the general
public but the full range of articles, as well as access to and
participation in online discussions will only be available to members,” so
far there is no membership mechanism on the site and all articles are
freely accessible in PDF format.
Current Issue: Issue 1 Winter 2008
Date: 27 June 2008
June 20, 2008 at 1:17 pm · Filed under Sociology/Anthropology
Jessamyn West, librarian extraordinaire and the best friend I have in Vermont, has caught an interesting article on social networking in rural areas:
The Network in the Garden: An Empirical Analysis of Social Media in Rural Life
(Hot tip: Jessamyn might be coming to visit before long. Hopefully she’ll grace us with one of her world-famous presentations, like she did when she stayed with us in Birmingham.)
June 18, 2008 at 5:10 am · Filed under Music, Sociology/Anthropology
The following appeared on H-SOUTHERN-MUSIC:
First published on H-Labor-Arts
We at Labor Arts/ LaborArts.org invite you to visit our newest exhbit:
“‘Play It Again, Sam’ — Lost Chords of the Labor and Progressive
Movements”
The exhibit features music from that particularly fertile period of the
labor and progressive movements –the 1930s and 1940s. There are a number of
little known songs, songs that are in danger of passing, unrecognized. into our
musical history, and we have recorded some of them for this exhibit. They are
sung by Henry Foner, whose unerring memory for the lyrics of these songs is
unique.
Labor arts followers who have “lost songs” to add to our list are
encouraged to contribute notice of them to this list.
In solidarity,
Evelyn Jones Rich, Rachel Bernstein and Henry Foner
June 12, 2008 at 8:35 am · Filed under Languages, Music, Sociology/Anthropology
Here we have a guest post from Heather Johnson. Thanks, Heather!
********************************************************************
It’s a diverse world we live in– each country has its own indigenous languages; and each of these languages is spoken in numerous dialects and pronunciations, features that change according to the nature of the place and situation in which they are used. But there’s one language that’s spoken across the world and universally understood– the language of music. The basic notes of music remain the same in almost all cultures– the songs that are written are an infinite combination of these seven notes and a collage of instruments that contribute to making each song unique in its own right.
Learning a new language is a tough task, especially when you have to rely upon books and tutorials that do not teach you the right pronunciation and grammatical usage. The best way to pick up a new tongue is to live for a month or so in a place where that language is spoken by all the natives. You’re forced to learn the new lingo as fast as you can, or you end up being a social misfit. But since most of us do not have the luxury of hopping over to Germany for a while to learn to speak German, we can try our hands at the next best thing– familiarizing ourselves with music and songs written in German.
Unbelievable as it may sound, it’s true. How often have we been attracted to the sound of music and picked up the lyrics after listening to the song a couple of times? How easy it is to remember the words when they are set to a tune that we love! Picking up the meaning is just a matter of routine after that. The emotions that a song conveys make it simple to grasp the meaning of the lyrics, and in the process, pick up a smattering of the language. Once the base is established, the rest is easy enough.
The problem with picking up a new tongue is that it’s just like learning any other skill– the less you use it, the less time it stays with you. To gain complete mastery over a language, it’s important that you continue to speak it and improve your usage as time goes by. If you’re a beginner, even a month or two that goes by without talking in the new language is a setback to what you’ve learned. Again, music helps to overcome this barrier– it’s not hard to listen over and over to songs that have catchy tunes, and keeping in touch with the language becomes a breeze.
Learning a new language? Turn to music to help you– it holds the chords (pun intended) that tie both language and memory together!
*************************************
Heather Johnson is a regular commentator on the subject of graduate school grants. She welcomes your feedback and potential job inquiries at heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.
June 10, 2008 at 9:13 am · Filed under Sociology/Anthropology
Dr. Michael Reksulak, in our School of Economic Development, has an interesting new piece in his regular Savannah Morning News column. Take a look at these recent findings regarding the lead content in gasoline, linked with crime rates. The research abstract is here, and the article is available via interlibrary loan.
June 5, 2008 at 7:04 am · Filed under Sociology/Anthropology
Here’s an announcement being circulated, with a deadline of Sept. 1, 2008:
The Society for Psychological Anthropology each year awards the
Richard G. Condon Prize for the best student essay (graduate or
undergraduate) in psychological anthropology. The winner is awarded a
year’s membership in the Society and publication of the paper in Ethos
(after appropriate revision as necessary).
The prize is named for the late Richard G. Condon, whose work included
the study of adolescence, family, and change among the Canadian Inuit.
Psychological anthropology is defined broadly to include
interrelationships among psychological, social and cultural phenomena;
it is not confined to studies of culture and personality. Essays will
be judged on their organization and clarity, as well as upon their
theoretical and methodological strengths. This year’s winner will be
recognized at the SPA Business Meeting held at annual meetings of the
AAA.
An electronic version of the paper (in the form of a Microsoft Word or
Adobe Acrobat PDF file, on a CD or floppy disk) as well as four paper
copies of the paper must be submitted and received by September 1,
2008, accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped manila envelope if
return of the original is desired.
Submissions that do not meet the above requirements will be considered
ineligible and returned without consideration.
Entries should be addressed to:
SPA CONDON PRIZE
Ashley Maynard
University of Hawaii
Department of Psychology
2430 Campus Road
Gartley #110
Honolulu, HI 96822
Papers submitted for consideration should follow these guidelines:
No evidence of the author’s identity may be provided in any way
through the text or by reference in the paper.
The author’s name and address, student affiliation, and the title of
the paper must be provided on a separate cover sheet accompanying the
manuscript, which should be identified by the title.
All authors of papers submitted for this prize must either be in
Doctoral, Master’s, or undergraduate degree programs at the time of
submission, or be new graduates who received Doctorates, Master’s
Degrees, or Bachelor’s Degrees after May 1, 2007. An entry should be
accompanied by a photocopy of each author’s student identification
card or a photocopy of each author’s most recent diploma. Only one
entry is allowed per author. Papers may be co-authored, but all
authors must meet the above criteria.
Paper must not exceed 35 double-spaced pages and must follow the style
of Ethos.
May 30, 2008 at 2:15 pm · Filed under Sociology/Anthropology
Here’s an intriguing piece for your weekend reading. Eula Biss has published a moving essay, relating her life in Chicago to the Ingalls family’s life on the Kansas frontier. She examines the personal politics of fear, especially as it relates to ethnicity and neighborhoods.
No-Man’s Land, by Eula Biss
Thoughts?
(This piece was discovered via The Revealer, a vital source of cultural writing on religion & the press.)
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