Columbia University
Graduate Program in
Ethnomusicology
Center for Ethnomusicology
Type of Program and Degrees Offered
We
offer the M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, as one of four doctoral
tracks in the Department of Music. We do not have an M.A.-only offering. We
offer a B.A. in Music through Columbia College, Barnard College, and the School
of General Studies. We offer a B.A. (special major) in Ethnomusicology through
Barnard College (only).
Program Focus
We
emphasize social scientific theory and methods; program foci include cultural
policy, cultural rights, intellectual and cultural property issues,
repatriation, Native and indigenous studies, sound studies, music and
technology, music and childhood, popular musics, music and human rights, music
and violence/conflict, and area emphases on the Americas, and Europe (including
Eastern and Central Europe). However, many of our recent Ph.D.’s have also
worked in East and South Asia and in Africa. We place strong emphasis on
critical applications of ethnographic research to contemporary political and
policy debates.
Special Resources
The
Center for Ethnomusicology incorporates a digital media laboratory, special
library collections, the Laura Boulton sound archives and other audio archives
of historically important field recordings, and a field research equipment
collection. We sponsor regular colloquia, concerts, and conferences featuring
important scholars and performers. Other resources are available through the
Columbia Center for Jazz Studies, the Columbia Computer Music Center, the
Columbia University Music Performance Program, the World Music Ensembles
Program, and the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program. Our setting in New
York City provides access to one of the richest and most diverse musical scenes
in the world. Columbia's library system is one of the largest in the world, and
includes many specialized collections of interest to ethnomusicologists.
Columbia University maintains specialized centers and programs in East Asian
Studies, South Asian Studies, Slavic and Central Asian Studies, American
Studies, African Studies, African-American Studies, Asian-American and Latino
Studies, Western European Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Gender Studies, and
many other fields of study. The University also has one of the top Anthropology
Departments in the United States. A formal consortium agreement allows Columbia
graduate students to take selected courses for credit at The Graduate Center of
The City University of New York, New York University, Fordham University, New
School for Social Research, Princeton, Rutgers University, Stony Brook
University, and The Teachers College. Multi-year fellowship support (described
in detail below) is available for approximately two to four entering students
per year.
Full-Time Faculty in Ethnomusicology
Aaron
Fox. (Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Texas 1995). Associate Professor of
Music; Chair, Department of Music. Popular music; working-class cultures;
language and music; race, class, and indigeneity; ethnographic theory and
method; history of social thought; linguistics; Native American Studies;
cultural and intellectual property issues. Author of Real Country: Music and
Language in Working-Class Culture.
Lila
Ellen Gray. (Ph.D., Cultural Anthropology, Duke University 2005). Assistant
Professor of Music. Performance; gender; ethnographic theory and method;
poetics; urban cultural studies; place; singing style; fado; Portugal; Europe.
Ana
María Ochoa. (Ph.D., Ethnomusicology and Folklore, Indiana University 1996).
Associate Professor of Music; Director, Center for Ethnomusicology. Cultural policy,
music and armed conflict, intellectual property, history of aurality, Latin
American cultural studies, music and globalization.
Christopher
Washburne. (Ph.D., Ethnomusicology, Columbia University, 1999). Associate
Professor of Music; Director, Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program. Jazz;
Salsa; Latin American and Caribbean musics; music and identity; performance.
Faculty
from other areas of the Music Department and from many other departments at
Columbia routinely serve on Ethnomusicology dissertation committees. Please see
our website for details.
General Program Statement
The
Graduate Program in Ethnomusicology at Columbia University is a
transdisciplinary program centered on a critical approach to the study of music
and sound. On the one hand, we emphasize the social scientific tradition within
ethnomusicology, and therefore keep strong affiliations with the fields of
anthropology, cultural studies, popular culture studies, media studies,
history, and sociology. On the other hand, we focus on questions central to
critical theory and to subjects such as modernity and tradition, nationalism
and globalization, indigeneity, cultural rights, intellectual property rights,
new media and technology, cultural policy, music and violence, music and
gender, among others emphases which strengthen our relationships with other
fields in the humanities and the natural sciences. We emphasize rigorous,
sustained field research as the basis of the discipline’s unique contribution
to musicology and social thought. Our goal is to train students to pursue
careers in original scholarly research and university teaching, and to make
major contributions to the advancement of critical knowledge in and about music
and sound.
Financial Support
Graduate
students admitted to the Ph.D. program receive five years of full funding, with
teaching obligations in years 2-5. Most students are funded for a sixth year.
Almost all students win external grants for field research, and many win
competitive dissertation-writing fellowships. Additional support is provided by
the Center for Ethnomusicology.
Further Information
Prof.
Christopher Washburne, Area Chair for Ethnomusicology, Dept. of Music, Columbia
University, MC 1825, New York, NY 10027, USA. Phone: 212-854-9862; Email: cjw5@columbia.edu
Program Website
http://www.ethnocenter.org
Related Websites
Department
of Music: http://www.music.columbia.edu
The content for Columbia University was last
updated July 14, 2010.