Four of the founders of the Society for Ethnomusicology pose at the SEM conference in 1971. Charles Seeger, Alan Merriam, Willard Rhodes, and David McAllester. October, 1971. Photo © William Malm.

Welcome to an overview of SEM’s history, developed in conjunction with the society’s 50th anniversary annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2005. Below you will find an article on the founding of SEM, a timeline of the society’s history, images of the evolving design of the journal Ethnomusicology, a list of past annual meetings, biographies and photographs of Seeger Lecturers at annual meetings, and photographs of annual meeting participants. Also included is an area for the histories of other ethnomusicology institutions.

Founding Editors: Ronda Sewald, Alan Burdette, Mark Miyake

This SEM history section is a work in progress. Please send any corrections, additions and comments to Steve Stuempfle at semexec@indiana.edu.

Browse SEM History categories:

• Founding of SEM
• SEM Timeline
• Presidents
• Publications Design
• Annual Meetings
• Seeger Lecturers
• Photograph Gallery
• Institutional Histories
• Credits