Student Paper Prize
The Charlotte Frisbie Student Paper Prize recognizes the most distinguished student paper in ethnomusicology of Indigenous music research presented at the SEM annual meeting. The prize comes with a cash award of $300 (which may be divided into two $150 prizes). All students giving papers on Indigenous topics at the SEM conference are encouraged to submit their papers, as presented (not revised), for consideration.
The prize is named for Dr. Charlotte J. Frisbie. A long time champion of Indigenous scholarship, her tireless efforts within the Society for Ethnomusicology and support of fellow researchers led to the development of the Indigenous Music Section. Charlotte is Professor of Anthropology Emerita at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior, she graduated cum laude from Smith College with a music major in 1962, earned an MA in Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University in 1964, and a PhD in Anthropology from University of New Mexico in 1970.
A past president of SEM and co-founder of the Navajo Studies Conference, Inc. with the late David Brugge, she continues both anthropological and ethnomusicological research and writing. Some of her research interests include food sovereignty, Indigenous knowledge, ritual drama, historic preservation, gender studies, and SEM’s history.
A past president of SEM and co-founder of the Navajo Studies Conference, Inc. with the late David Brugge, she continues both anthropological and ethnomusicological research and writing. Some of her research interests include food sovereignty, Indigenous knowledge, ritual drama, historic preservation, gender studies, and SEM’s history.
2017 Winner, Ailsa Lipscombe
Ailsa Lipscombe (University of Chicago, PhD Student) presented "Disembodiment as Disempowerment: Indigenous Vocal Performance in Disney’s Frozen" at the 62nd annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology in Denver, CO.
Abstract: The 2013 release of Disney's Frozen reignited discussions about the franchise's visual and sonic representations of gendered and racialized bodies. Critiqued as their most progressive film yet but also as a classic case of "Disney whitewashing" (Tucker 2014), the absence of indigenous bodies in moments of performed Sámi music reduces indigeneity in Frozen to the task of merely cultivating a mood of "Otherness." This paper examines how Frozen navigates body politics and cultural agency through the staging of vocal performance. Unlike the "palpable physicality" (Stilwell 2015) of solo singing by principal protagonists in the film, all three moments of disembodied vocal performance belong to expressions of Sámi musical traditions. The opening choral piece "Vuelie," praised by Jérémie Noyer (2014) for giving Frozen its "native spirit," exemplifies a form of musical landscaping, whereby Sámi music is used to render the non-localized Scandinavian setting "authentically" and natively different. However, these untethered indigenous voices are only granted the ability to sing by Queen Elsa's performances of whiteness. Indeed, as she fights to be sovereign of Arendelle, she demonstrates her control over the nation-state by determining when Sámi music may sound and when it must disappear. These notable performances of disembodied indigeneity thus continue to raise concerns about racial representation in mainstream animation, relegating autochthonous cultures to the land rather than to a character. The invisibility of Sámi bodies in Frozen reveals that the inclusion of indigenous musical materials is not enough to permit racially-marked characters to "let go" of Disney's tropes of disempowerment.
Abstract: The 2013 release of Disney's Frozen reignited discussions about the franchise's visual and sonic representations of gendered and racialized bodies. Critiqued as their most progressive film yet but also as a classic case of "Disney whitewashing" (Tucker 2014), the absence of indigenous bodies in moments of performed Sámi music reduces indigeneity in Frozen to the task of merely cultivating a mood of "Otherness." This paper examines how Frozen navigates body politics and cultural agency through the staging of vocal performance. Unlike the "palpable physicality" (Stilwell 2015) of solo singing by principal protagonists in the film, all three moments of disembodied vocal performance belong to expressions of Sámi musical traditions. The opening choral piece "Vuelie," praised by Jérémie Noyer (2014) for giving Frozen its "native spirit," exemplifies a form of musical landscaping, whereby Sámi music is used to render the non-localized Scandinavian setting "authentically" and natively different. However, these untethered indigenous voices are only granted the ability to sing by Queen Elsa's performances of whiteness. Indeed, as she fights to be sovereign of Arendelle, she demonstrates her control over the nation-state by determining when Sámi music may sound and when it must disappear. These notable performances of disembodied indigeneity thus continue to raise concerns about racial representation in mainstream animation, relegating autochthonous cultures to the land rather than to a character. The invisibility of Sámi bodies in Frozen reveals that the inclusion of indigenous musical materials is not enough to permit racially-marked characters to "let go" of Disney's tropes of disempowerment.
2016 Winner, Hannah Adamy
Hannah Adamy (University of California, Davis, PhD Student) presented "Sounding Absence: Tanya Tagaq’s Theoretical Intervention at Polaris" at the 61st annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology in Washington, D.C.
Abstract: Non-traditional throat singer and Inuk activist Tanya Tagaq received a standing ovation after she performed at the 2014 Polaris Music Prize Gala at The Carlu event theater in Toronto, Canada. Though she presented the songs as “Uja” and “Umingmak” from her recent album Animism (2014), the performance was almost entirely improvised and rehearsed the day of the gala. Many publications described her performance as haunting, powerful, and even frightening, primarily because the names of 1,200 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada silhouetted Tagaq’s writhing, panting, shrieking body. In this paper, I analyze Tagaq’s performance at Polaris and her performances in interviews after her win as a bodied theory, a praxis, an act of activism. In an act of alliance, I chart the seemingly disparate connections Tagaq makes between her music-making and issues facing indigenous peoples in Canada. I argue that Tagaq creates a sonic collage using the logic of her experiences as an Inuk woman and sexual assault survivor. Though her performance most explicitly referenced the disproportionate number of missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada, Tagaq uses her post-performance platform to pivot to other pertinent issues facing indigenous peoples. Thus, Tagaq publicly articulates a conception of sovereignty through sound, using throat-singing as a means of reclaiming her body, and the bodies of the missing and murdered. Her project participates in larger discussions of indigenous feminism and the efficacy of sound and silence in social movements.
Abstract: Non-traditional throat singer and Inuk activist Tanya Tagaq received a standing ovation after she performed at the 2014 Polaris Music Prize Gala at The Carlu event theater in Toronto, Canada. Though she presented the songs as “Uja” and “Umingmak” from her recent album Animism (2014), the performance was almost entirely improvised and rehearsed the day of the gala. Many publications described her performance as haunting, powerful, and even frightening, primarily because the names of 1,200 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada silhouetted Tagaq’s writhing, panting, shrieking body. In this paper, I analyze Tagaq’s performance at Polaris and her performances in interviews after her win as a bodied theory, a praxis, an act of activism. In an act of alliance, I chart the seemingly disparate connections Tagaq makes between her music-making and issues facing indigenous peoples in Canada. I argue that Tagaq creates a sonic collage using the logic of her experiences as an Inuk woman and sexual assault survivor. Though her performance most explicitly referenced the disproportionate number of missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada, Tagaq uses her post-performance platform to pivot to other pertinent issues facing indigenous peoples. Thus, Tagaq publicly articulates a conception of sovereignty through sound, using throat-singing as a means of reclaiming her body, and the bodies of the missing and murdered. Her project participates in larger discussions of indigenous feminism and the efficacy of sound and silence in social movements.
2015 Winner, Trevor Reed |
Trevor Reed (Columbia University, PhD Student) presented his award winning paper, "Reclaiming Networks of Indigenous Song: Ontologies of Property, Politics and Transformation in Boulton’s Taatawi Recordings," at the 60th annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology in Austin, TX.
Abstract: What is indigenous song? This paper traces the collision of human and nonhuman networks that generated a series of contested ceremonial song recordings through the interactions of Hopi singers, Laura Boulton and a Fairchild recorder. In 1940, Boulton traveled to Hopi lands to "hunt" what she believed were rare and forbidden ceremonial songs. What she came home with, and what now exist in the archival forms that bear her name, are complex tokens implicating numerous networks and their varied ontologies of sound. In this paper I show the remarkable way Boulton's notion of music and Hopi conceptions of taatawi (song) came into alignment, enabling a sonic transaction. However, what Boulton believed she heard is not necessarily what her indigenous informants sang into existence. Taking a Latourian approach, I explore the Boulton-Hopi recordings as the nexus of multiple ontologies: at once creative property legally attached to an entity of the settler-state, a mode of transformation operating within an indigenous cosmology, and a bundle of strategic (and in some instances post-colonial) political moves. In tracing these three ontologies and the kinds of relationships they enable through sound, I hone in on the stakes of the parties in fusing their sonic worlds into recorded sound objects. Reconstituting the ontological layers of archival recordings is, at its core, a decolonizing project that gives intellectual space to both indigenous and non-indigenous points-of-view while recognizing the complexity and realities of the encounter. Such a task is necessary to the project of reclaiming archived ancestral voices.
Abstract: What is indigenous song? This paper traces the collision of human and nonhuman networks that generated a series of contested ceremonial song recordings through the interactions of Hopi singers, Laura Boulton and a Fairchild recorder. In 1940, Boulton traveled to Hopi lands to "hunt" what she believed were rare and forbidden ceremonial songs. What she came home with, and what now exist in the archival forms that bear her name, are complex tokens implicating numerous networks and their varied ontologies of sound. In this paper I show the remarkable way Boulton's notion of music and Hopi conceptions of taatawi (song) came into alignment, enabling a sonic transaction. However, what Boulton believed she heard is not necessarily what her indigenous informants sang into existence. Taking a Latourian approach, I explore the Boulton-Hopi recordings as the nexus of multiple ontologies: at once creative property legally attached to an entity of the settler-state, a mode of transformation operating within an indigenous cosmology, and a bundle of strategic (and in some instances post-colonial) political moves. In tracing these three ontologies and the kinds of relationships they enable through sound, I hone in on the stakes of the parties in fusing their sonic worlds into recorded sound objects. Reconstituting the ontological layers of archival recordings is, at its core, a decolonizing project that gives intellectual space to both indigenous and non-indigenous points-of-view while recognizing the complexity and realities of the encounter. Such a task is necessary to the project of reclaiming archived ancestral voices.
2014 Winner, Leila Qashu |
Leila Qashu (Memorial University of Newfoundland, PhD Candidate) presented her award winning paper, "The Siinqee Institution and Ateetee: Arsi Oromo Women's Sung Prayers as an Active Practice of Women's Spiritual and Societal Powers and a Means of Upholding their Rights," at the 59th annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology in Pittsburgh, PA.
Abstract: In the constantly changing society of the Arsi Oromo (a subgroup of the Oromo ethnic group of Ethiopia), women have limited socio-political power. However, they have a spiritual institution that is exclusive to them which is called siinqee. As part of this institution, Arsi women have a spiritual and musical ritual, called ateetee, which they can use for several purposes, including: childbirth, sickness, scarcity of rain, war, disputes and gender violence. Today there is no longer much use for the prayers for men who go to war, but many of the other ateetee prayers are used. In times of difficulty, or when women want to gather, they go near the river or under a specific tree to sing these prayers. In the case of gender abuse, when a woman has been dishonoured by another person in any way, she can gather with other women in front of the offender's house to perform this song- and poetry-based ritual, at the end of which the offender is expected to confess his/her guilt, offer a gift and ask for forgiveness. In this talk, I will use examples of different types of ateetee ceremonies and the voices of the participants of these gatherings to explore the origins and the make up of Arsi Oromo women's spiritual rituals and how they are perceived within their societies.
Abstract: In the constantly changing society of the Arsi Oromo (a subgroup of the Oromo ethnic group of Ethiopia), women have limited socio-political power. However, they have a spiritual institution that is exclusive to them which is called siinqee. As part of this institution, Arsi women have a spiritual and musical ritual, called ateetee, which they can use for several purposes, including: childbirth, sickness, scarcity of rain, war, disputes and gender violence. Today there is no longer much use for the prayers for men who go to war, but many of the other ateetee prayers are used. In times of difficulty, or when women want to gather, they go near the river or under a specific tree to sing these prayers. In the case of gender abuse, when a woman has been dishonoured by another person in any way, she can gather with other women in front of the offender's house to perform this song- and poetry-based ritual, at the end of which the offender is expected to confess his/her guilt, offer a gift and ask for forgiveness. In this talk, I will use examples of different types of ateetee ceremonies and the voices of the participants of these gatherings to explore the origins and the make up of Arsi Oromo women's spiritual rituals and how they are perceived within their societies.