Purpose: To help support research on Native American Music of the United States and Canada and to recognize the publication of said research.

Eligibility: Established scholars, recent Ph.D.s, or Ph.D. candidates who have completed all program requirements except dissertation research. Preference will be given to a person planning to do research based on Dr. Halpern's collection of Northwest Coast music. Once a person has been awarded the fellowship/prize, he or she will not be eligible to reapply for a three-year period to begin at the time the prize is announced.

Prize: Includes a $4,000 research fellowship and a $1,000 award post-publication.

Regularity: Awarded biennially (odd years)

Administration: The fellowship/prize is administered by a Chair and two additional committee members, appointed by the SEM President. The Chair will be responsible for monitoring the number of applicants in advance of the selection period and will encourage further applications when they are insufficient according to the committee's judgment. Committee members are not eligible to apply for the fellowship/prize during their tenure on the committee. The Fellowship and Prize may be withheld by decision of the committee.

Application Process: A completed application consists of:

1. Research proposal, typed, not to exceed four single-spaced pages (including references);
2. Proposed budget;
3. Current vita;
4. Names, addresses, and phone numbers of two references;
5. Letter from Graduate Program advisor verifying completion of all program requirements except dissertation research if applicant is a PhD candidate;
6. Letter indicating Native American community support, if new research is proposed.

Application Deadline: April 1, 2021.

Submit Application At: online application form.

Recipients

2019

Anna Hoefnagels. "Cultural Transmission, Education and Revitalization through Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Social Song and Dance: The Travelling Troupe of the Native North American Travelling College".

2017

Nadia Chana. "Urgent Listening: Embodied Practices as a Response to Ecological Crisis."

2015

Chris Aplin. "That’s The Only Time It Was Good: Apache Prisoner of War Music and Liberation on the Roads to Fort Sill,1877-1913."

2014

No award made.

2012

Dylan Robinson. "‘Singing through Our Tears’: The Testimonial Vocality of Residential School Survivors.”

2010      

Chrisopher Scales.

2006      

Klisala Harrison. "Northwest Coast First Nations Song and the Canadian West Coast Powwow Style in Vancouver, British Columbia's Inner City."

2001      

Theresa Allison. "Music in Cultural Transmission in and around a Navajo Home."

1999      

Victoria Lindsay Levine. "Yuchi Music and Woodland Intertribalism in Oklahoma."

1994      

Richard Keeling. "Animal-Speech Songs in the Halpern Collection and in Other Repertories from North America and Northeastern Asia."

1991      

David Gordon Duke. "For his work on a comparative study of the Potlatch song genre among peoples of the Pacific Northwest."