Gender and Sexualities Taskforce
a section of the Society for Ethnomusicology

Reports to SEM Board

2006 Annual Report

2005 Annual Report

2006 Annual Report

Society for Ethnomusicology
Gender and Sexualities Taskforce Section
Submitted by Juniper Hill and Boden Sandstrom, Co-Chairs
October 22, 2006

2006 has been a productive year for the Gender and Sexualities Taskforce Section.  Our leadership has transitioned from the capable and dedicated Eileen Hayes and Amy Corin to new co-chairs Juniper Hill and Boden Sandstrom, who were elected at the 2005 Annual Meeting in Atlanta.  It was decided that one cochair would be replaced each year so that, beginning next year, section chairs will serve overlapping two-year terms (so that each new chair will be working with a seasoned co-chair).

Several long-term projects came to fruition this year.  The Marcia Herndon Award, honoring outstanding ethnomusicological scholarship in gender and sexuality, has been finalized and approved, with much assistance from Eileen Hayes and Gillian Rodgers, and blessings from Marcia’s partner, Billye Talmadge. We have posted the award on our website and on SEM, AMS-LGTB, WMST, IASPM-US, and other relevant listservs and newsletters.  The deadline for submissions is April 1, 2007 and the first award will be given at the 2007 SEM annual meeting.  We hope to have an option added to the SEM membership form for members to donate to the prize fund.

Our section website has a new home and is now up-to-date and fully functional (with assistance from Lawren Young and Tes Slominski at NYU).  The new URL is http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/music/SEM%20Home.htm.  In addition to news, contact and membership information, reports, and our prize announcement, the website also contains extensive bibliographies of music and gender/sexuality scholarship, which we hope will serve as a valuable resource for research and teaching.  We also have an active section listserv, which we use to keep our membership up-to-date on relevant scholarly activities. 

Also towards our goal of promoting the ethnomusicological study of gender and sexuality, we solicited abstracts (with help from Roberta Lamb) and organized a double panel session that will be presented at the 2006 SEM conference in Hawaii.  Our GST-sponsored double panel is entitled "Non-Normative Genders and Renegotiated Performance Processes," with "Part I – Challenging Norms of Gender and Sexuality On and Off Stage" chaired by Juniper Hill and "Part II – Reconfigured Gender Identity through Popular Music Performance" chaired by Boden Sandstrom.  Beverly Diamond and Ellen Koskoff will be discussants for the panels, which should help create a deeper and lively examination of the papers presented.

At the upcoming annual meeting in Honolulu, we plan to address and take action on many of the important issues that were raised at last year's Crossroads Project on Diversity, Difference, and Underrepresentation. 

2005 Annual Report

Since the 2004 meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Gender and Sexualities Taskforce has enjoyed a productive year. Our membership has remained active and engaged between conferences allowing us to accomplish a number of critical goals and objectives set forth during the 2004 membership meeting.

During the past year, Section members agreed upon a sliding scale dues that members will pay annually via a check-off box on the (hard copy) renewal form for SEM memberships. Alternatively, members can submit their dues payment via the SEM web site either when initially joining the Society or submitting their annual renewal fees. This nominal fee will assist with administrative costs to fund Section activities throughout the year.

Following many months of research and collaboration, a sub-committee, under the leadership of Boden Sandstrom, completed the description of and requirements for a new prize to be offered by the GST. The Marcia Herndon Award to honor exceptional ethnomusicological work in gender and sexuality studies will be announced for the first time this year. The Award will be offered annually. The initial prize amount will be funded in part by a generous grant from the ethnomusicology department at the University of Maryland. The text of the award accompanies this report.

Work continues on a Section web page that can be accessed from the SEM web site. We anticipate that this page will be completed before the 2005 conference. Members of the Section have continued efforts to compile a bibliography of scholarly works in the areas of gender and sexuality studies. The bibliography, which has been in progress for a number of years, will be posted on the Section web page. We expect that the bibliography will be available shortly after the completion of the GST web page.
At the 2005 meeting in Atlanta, the Gender and Sexualities Taskforce will co-sponsor two panels with the Section on the Status of Women: a roundtable title, “The Mentoring Networks for Women” and a paper session titled, “Women on the Verge of a Gender Breakdown.” The former is a reprise of a highly successful panel on mentoring presented during the 2002 SEM Conference in Estes Park, Colorado. The 2005 mentoring session is being presented in response to the positive feedback we received about the panel at the Estes Park meeting. “Women on the Verge of a Gender Breakdown” fuses the interests of both sections as participants explore the negotiation of gender boundaries within women's music cultures.

Finally, we anticipate a change in Section leadership this year as both co-chairs will complete their two-year terms. GST membership will have the opportunity to elect new leadership at the regularly scheduled business meeting to be held in Atlanta. The GST is still a fledgling committee within the larger Society for Ethnomusicology. We are proud of our efforts to more firmly anchor the Gender and Sexualities Taskforce so that in the coming years, the Section might move to higher ground, providing an invaluable service for SEM members. Thank you for your continued support of the Gender and Sexualities Taskforce.

Respectfully submitted,
Eileen M. Hayes
Amy R. Corin
Co-Chairs Gender and Sexualities Taskforce