Introduction.

Hi all.

I have recently updated my bios for the university website and an upcoming publication, so I find it refreshing to write about myself in a less formal and less promotional way. Here's my little introductory blurb, to let you know who I am, where I am in the dissertation process, and what I hope to get out of this writing group.

I like to refer to myself as a music scholar. The reason is that I don't think I neatly adhere to one approach to studying music (whether historical musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, cultural studies, etc). In fact, I try to incorporate as many of these perspectives into my work as possible. I think many people in all of these fields cross disciplinary lines nowadays, but we sometimes still segregate ourselves into our own camps for reasons I believe are mostly institutional. For institutional reasons, I am considered an ethnomusicologist. I have an M.A. in ethnomusicology from ASU, and I'm now completing an ethnomusicology Ph.D. at UT Austin. At the Society for Ethnomusicology, I am a member of the special interest group on "Historical Ethnomusicology" as my work is mostly historical at the moment (so shouldn't I be considered a historical musicologist? That would be okay with me, although I would not want to offend historical musicologists by calling myself that...). I am also a Latin Americanist. I focus on the music of my home country, Guatemala, where I am currently conducting research for my dissertation. I'm investigating the transnational and cosmopolitan dimensions of Guatemalan national identity. It sounds like an oxymoron, I know, but the more I get into the subject the more I'm convinced that I'm on to something. I am particularly interested in the musical importations of the early 20th century, particularly the fox trot, and their impact into national discourse. My first paper on the subject will soon come out on the next issue of the Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology.

So where am I now in terms of my research? Not as far as I would like. I wrote an extensive prospectus, which the ethnomusicology area of our division requires before candidacy, and I am now in Guatemala trying to realize what I proposed in that document. The truth is that since I do not often have the chance to be here under these circumstances, I'm trying to get my hands on as many sources as I can, so that I have enough materials for my dissertation and future scholarly projects after that as well (I can't come back here every time I need a new subject for a paper, if you know what I mean). I have been working so far in three archives: the Hemeroteca Nacional (the national repository for newspapers and magazines). The CIRMA archive in the nearby city of Antingua, and the Museo de Arte moderno Carlos Merida. I am mostly going through sources I find potentially relevant, digitizing them (when I'm allowed) and/or taking extensive notes on the documents I find. Then I index all of my sources as I enter them electronically into my hard drive. When possible I also transcribe my sources electronically. It's a very slow and tedious process sometimes, but I hope it will make all of the materials easily searchable and usable once I am writing the actual dissertation.

When Jane first proposed to start this dissertation writing group I got very excited because, being the big procrastinator that I am, I could benefit from this group to get stuff done, or done more efficiently. However, I had reservations, since although I may have enough materials to start writing sections of the dissertation, I don't feel I'm quite ready to start that process just yet. Nevertheless, I could still benefit from this group if you all would be willing to have me. I would like to use this group to get further along my research goals, and if I may, start writing an essay that is due in less than a month, potentially publishable, based on my Master's thesis. How I envision this working for me is setting up very concrete goals on a weekly basis, and reporting back on them (it will help me get them done), as well as sharing drafts of my upcoming essay and prospectus. If I feel brave, I may also start outlining and drafting sections of the dissertation as we go along. If this sounds reasonable to you all, I look forward to working with you.

I thank Jane for her initiative and kind encouragement.

Yours,

Andrés.

Billy Murray Is My Homeboy

Hi, I'm Jane. It is likely that, if you're reading this and thinking of joining this project, you know me or have known me at some point in the past. For the purposes of introduction, I'm going to give a little blurb about me and my research, where I am in this process, and whatnot, in order to model how we might introduce ourselves.

*cough* you guys do this too, k? *cough*

I fancy myself a historical musicologist, now in my fifth year of grad school, newly ABD'd in July. For those of you not familiar with the discipline, it is a fun little mash-up of music history, music theory, aesthetics, critical theory and, frequently, "area" studies (gender, geographical, etc.). One of the best things about the field, from my perspective, is the increasingly frequent choose-your-own-adventure spin of discipline. For what was initially a very conservative, stodgy field, the variety of methodology and subjects has diversified quite a bit in the last 15-20 years. It's an exciting time to be a music scholar. :) I give you this disciplinary introduction as a way to segue into my own academic perspective. My particular specialization is in twentieth-century American music, with a secondary focus on popular music and technology. I’ve always envisioned my work as interdisciplinary and chose my academic institution IN LARGE PART because of the very open, collegial and interdisciplinary bent of the program. After four years of course work and mentorship from ethnomusicology, music theory, American studies and history faculty, I hope my work displays an awareness and response to these disciplines while being firmly grounded in contemporary musicological practice.

My dissertation is an exploration of Tin Pan Alley between 1890 and 1920, using the construction of the popular music industry and its culture as allegory and model for the processes of assembling an American collective identity at the turn of the twentieth century. In order to do so, my dissertation hopes to ultimately expand and reorient our definition of Tin Pan Alley to include the individuals active within it, their associations with one another and the musical sounds and products they created together. I'm also really interested in addressing the complex web of race, class, gender, and ethnic identities that were (and are) discursively separated, marked, and then collapsed into one another and into a singular "American" identity at the turn of the last century. If this description reeks of post-structuralism and Actor-Network-Theory, well then, bingo. I like Latour. I like Foucault. I don't like Adorno but, I'll be damned if he's not right a bunch of the time.

I'm working on my prospectus right now, and by "working" I mean, I haven't figured out how to turn my seven-page proposal that doesn't really pose the question the way I want to ask it into a fifteen page THIS IS WHAT I'M DOING, K? prospectus. I'd like to have a good first draft by Thanksgiving and a solid document by mid-December, when fellowship applications are due.

HALP?

sisters (and brothers) doin' it for themselves

Over the summer, as I was preparing to defend my doctoral comps, I heard murmurs from other doctoral students in my division that a faculty member was going to facilitate a dissertation writers group in the Fall. I was excited to have a regular forum to gather feedback on my prospectus and subsequent chapters as well as a motivator to actually sit down and write pages on a schedule, especially when faced with the daunting task of writing an actual dissertation, not just the phantom-dissertation that had been in my brain for four years.

Fast-forward to mid-September: I'd heard nothing from anyone about the group for a month or so, only to discover that it had started but had been restricted to ethnomusicologists. This was odd. My face made a face. Our division is relatively small--only about 40 students in all stages of four different degree paths--and highly collaborative and interdisciplinary by design. Rarely are lines drawn between the disciplines and being excluded this way seemed so contrary to my experience of the program.

Two months and several conversations with colleagues and faculty later, I understand why the faculty member chose to limit the group and do no fault her in anyway. It makes practical and logistical sense. Yet, it continues to bother me, especially as I feel tremendously alone in my writing process. Rather than continue to feel confused/isolated/frownish and not get a damn thing done, I propose that we--oh, orphans of the dissertation world--work together to support, motivate, clarify and critique each others work. I invite you to join me in this interdisciplinary dissertation-completion blog. You may already be participating in other groups at your home institution; that's cool. Here, you'll find an interdisciplinary mix and outside perspectives on your project, a place to post goals and timelines where others will hold you as accountable as you let them, vent about the process, share victories and setbacks. Sound good? Send me your email address and I will add you as an author on this blog and we can get started.

So, how should this actually work? I'm not entirely sure and am open to suggestions/modifications but here's what I propose:

Members commit to 3-months of participation (for now). We can reassess after that.

Weekly:

• On Mondays, members/authors post writing/research goals for the week. These can take nearly any form: hours spent in the library, pages/words written, tasks to be completed, etc.
• On Thursdays, we each check-in on the blog about our progress towards the goals.
• On Sundays, we check-in again to see how successful we were.

Monthly:

• Drafts will be due on the 1st and 15th of the month. Whatever you're working on--a prospectus, a chapter, an outline, most likely a section--have something in sharable shape twice monthly. I'm thinking usually these drafts will be sections of 10-15 pages, not necessarily of entirely new material every time. As chapters get closer to completion, we can renegotiate length/frequency.
  
• Drafts will be shared on a round-robin basis: each draft will be reviewed by 1 or 2 other member(s) on a rotating basis. Reviewers will have one week to read the draft and return with comments.

I'm also thinking it might be nice to have some face-time occasionally. With glorious internet-technologies, we could schedule a monthly or bi-monthly Google+ Hangout and talk about our projects or do presentations. This, as is everything above, is totally open for debate.

What do y'all think?

I'll publish an actual introduction post with my info in it after this but I hope that there are folks that are interested and excited about this process, enough to commit to this group.

Also, feel free to share this blog with others who may be interested in the project.