Wednesday, October 24, 2001
9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
The Michigan League
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Judith Becker's spirited intellectual example has left its mark on several generations of graduate students at the University of Michigan. Her willingness to explore far beyond the boundaries of ethnomusicology and music scholarship generally has inspired her students to forage freely.

This one-day gathering will honor Becker by assembling some fifteen scholars who have worked closely with her as her students over the past two decades. Through paper presentations and panel discussions (see schedule), the participants will address Becker's contributions to the fields of ethnomusicology, Southeast Asian Studies, and ritual studies. More broadly, they will consider her theoretical legacies to ethnomusicology and to historical musicology through her work on iconicity and coherence systems. As Becker has written, one of the essential elements that gives music continued meaning in any society is "the 'fit', the congruence, the harmony, the consonance between the vales of the society and the implicit values of the music system."

Becker's work has widely influenced music scholarship, and we will consider the ways that her work has encouraged border-crossing between ethnomusicology and musicology. This symposium will offer a cumulative view forward, into the future, drawing from Becker's ideas.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Deborah Wong at (909) 787-3726 or dwong@mail.ucr.edu, or René T.A. Lysloff at (909) 787-3606 or lysloff@mail.ucr.edu.

This symposium is not a preconference to the annual Society for Ethnomusicology meeting (held October 25-28th, 2001 in Detroit) but is open to SEM members.

Please revisit this website for updates, as the schedule of presentations is still changing.

Participants:

Karen Ahlquist (George Washington University)
Marc Benamou (Earlham College)
H.K. Chae (Seoul National University)
Kyra Gaunt (University of Virginia)
Jocelyne Guilbault (University of California, Berkeley)
Tracey Laird (Agnes Scott College)
René Lysloff (University of California, Riverside)
Inna Naroditskaya (Northwestern University)
Kay Shelemay (Harvard University)
R. Anderson Sutton (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Maria Paula Survilla (Wartburg College)
Mark Slobin (Wesleyan University)
Timothy Taylor (Columbia University)
Susan Pratt Walton (University of Michigan)
Deborah Wong (University of California, Riverside)