2015 Meeting Minutes

Economic Ethnomusicology SIG
Meeting at Society for Ethnomusicology
Room 414, Hilton Austin
Austin, Texas
12:30pm, 3 December 2015

Introductions
• Attendees:
Anna Morcom (chair)
Juan Carlos Melendez-Torres (secretary)
Anna Stirr
Pirkko Moisala
Jayson Beaster-Jones
Eben Graves
Klisala Harrison
Nolan Warden
Lynn Hooker
Joe Snape
Catherine Provenzano
Inderjit Kaur
Kendra Salois
Chloe Alaghband-Zadeh
Stefan Fiol
Marc Perlman

Apologies
Tom Wagner (Administrator)

Minutes of the last meeting
• A. Morcom:
o They were sent out with the email just before this year’s meeting, are we all okay with them?
• [General assent]

Matters Arising
• A. Morcom:
o Listserv for the SIG has now been set up, email Anna Morcom or Juan Carlos Melendez-Torres to join, can also join from the Wikidot site
o Wikidot site has also been set up, links to bibliographies and minutes forthcoming or already up; link to join listserve
o 0 of 3 panels from economic ethno accepted to this year’s SEM, which is very disappointing
o Panels/Speakers/roundtable for next SEM?

Term length for Chair, Secretary, website manager
• A. Morcom:
o Thinking 3 years maximum
• C. Alaghband-Zadeh:
o How much work is it?
• A. Morcom:
o Not too much
• J.C. Melendez-Torres:
o Similar; work needed in spurts every now and then.
• A. Morcom:
o Agree to fix terms at 3 years maximum, though good to stagger new posts slightly so not everyone is new; can also use shadowing or ‘outgoing chair’ etc to ease transition

Chair’s report: activities during the year
• A. Morcom:
o 48 people on listserv now [56 members following new sign ups at the annual meeting]
o Encourages use of the listserve to share relevant conferences, plan panels etc; also good for people to share their own publications on Economic Ethnomusicology
o SIG wikidot website has been set up
o Potential for a Facebook/social media presence?
o Bibliographies: starting to be developed; Juan Carlos is working on an online open-access biblio for the SIG
o Please share panel and paper abstracts on this topic, these can be put in the resources section of the website; contact Tom Wagner cc A. Morcom about this
o 3 panels proposed for this year, all rejected; A. Morcom interpreted this as a sign not just of the high number of paper proposals this year but the newness of this research area
o T. Wagner & L. Whittaker & A. Morcom proposed panel for this coming British Forum on Ethnomusicology
o ICTM panel possible as well; encourages everyone to submit panels for conferences and let the Listserve know
• K. Harrison:
o Deadline for ICTM extended to 10 December
• N. Warden:
o Has a paper tomorrow morning on economic ethno, how genre might be theorized with value
• J.C. Melendez-Torres:
o Also have a paper on Friday on material value among music vendors in Burkina Faso

Ideas for the coming year
• A. Morcom:
o In the case that panels are not accepted again next year, can use this meeting time as a space for some kind of roundtable
o Something quick that can be done in under an hour
• J. Beaster-Jones:
o Academic speed dating? Could help us to familiarize ourselves with each other’s research
• A. Stirr:
o Poster session? With additional time (~3min) to present research aside from poster?
o Logistical question of actually getting the poster boards
• A. Morcom:
o Incorporate speed dating & roundtable: speed table?
• S. Fiol:
o Maybe a new workshop format?
o Get multiple scholars with established and in-work research
o Connect the scholars beforehand in prearranged small groups
o Have a combination of research presentation and direct feedback
• C. Alaghband-Zadeh:
o Is it more likely for us to get a special session accepted?
• J. Beaster-Jones:
o That difference doesn’t seem to matter too much
• A. Morcom:
o Have people present for 5 minutes flat in this new session, no overtime.
o Would be good to figure this out over the listserv
• S. Fiol:
o I would be willing to coordinate this, it worked well at MIDSEM
o We would need a dedicated time slot and need to put pressure on the planning committee to make this happen
• N. Warden:
o Mix of presentation on major themes, then splitting into smaller groups?
• A. Morcom:
o Let’s see how many people want to partake in this new model to get a better idea of what we’re doing
o Propose S. Fiol’s idea as a separate time block, outside of the business meeting
• J. Beaster-Jones:
o Maybe we don’t need to propose this as a part of the program if it’s a roundtable?
o Or if we don’t get it accepted, then we can do it in this meeting?
o The vetting process for roundtables is different from panel sessions, etc.
• A. Morcom:
o I would be happy to propose a roundtable for this for next year’s SEM
o Would be a series of 10-minute presentations?
• E. Graves:
o This year’s SEM had a high rejection rate for proposals
• P. Moisala:
o SEM committees tend to be very conservative, but five years from now, economic ethno will be all over the place
• E. Graves:
o So we’ll have proposed panels, proposed roundtables, and then S. Fiol’s new format?
• A. Morcom:
o Yes, and we’ll have a safety net of having something during our business meeting
• K. Salois:
o Out of curiosity, can someone say what the rejected panels were about?
• L. Hooker:
o [for my panel] Well, some parts of it were economic and other parts were not, and a possible issue was that it might not have been too cohesive
• A. Morcom:
o Andy McGraw was doing a lot of work on music as currency in prisons
o Lynn Whittaker and I were doing work on music as a form of exchange
• J. Beaster-Jones
o Is there a roadmap to shift from a SIG to a section? We need to petition the board to get section status
• A. Morcom:
o We need to gain more traction first
o We need to have 30+ potential members as a SIG, so for a section we need more than that
• K. Salois:
o MACSEM deadline is January 8, we can and should get papers together
• J.C. Melendez-Torres:
o MACSEM could also be a good time to test S. Fiol’s idea
• J. Beaster-Jones:
o The California chapter should also have a panel or roundtable for economic ethno
• A. Morcom:
o We can then use the website to post updates on panels and activities at conferences, use it as a resource
o I am planning a conference in the UK for economic ethnomusicology in September 2016
• J.C. Melendez-Torres:
o [Economic Ethno bibliography demonstration to attendees]
[a brief gap of 2 minutes while the secretary was not able to take notes due to the demonstration]
• A. Morcom:
o Who is signed up for the Economic Anthropology listserv run by the AAA?
• J. Beaster-Jones:
o It is possible that you don’t have to be a member of AAA to be on the listserv
• C. Alaghband-Zadeh:
o How can we get in touch with other people interested in this area?
• A. Stirr:
o We can also communicate over the SEM website functionality
• A. Morcom:
o Can we add people to the wikidot and connect with individuals that way?
o It would be nice to get a more active listserv going too
• S. Fiol:
o Maybe we could also infiltrate PMSSEM?
• A. Morcom:
o I also want to make sure that this isn’t just about Popular Music, but it could be a good way to connect with other scholars

AOB
• [none suggested]

Date of next meeting: TBD
• SEM 2016

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