In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Communications and Announcements


Click for larger view
View full resolution

Elizabeth Travassos Lins. Courtesy of Antônio José Pedral Sampaio Lins.

elizabeth travassos lins passed away on October 28, 2013, in Rio de Janeiro at the age of fifty-eight. She was born in Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and received her bachelor’s degree in social sciences (1977), master’s degree in social anthropology (1984), and doctorate of social anthropology (1996) from the Universidade Federal in Rio de Janeiro. She leaves behind a legacy of work in the research and documentation of popular and indigenous musics and cultures of Brazil. In 1983 and 1984 she conducted fieldwork with the Kaiabí people in the state of Mato Grosso and in the Xingú. At the Fundação Nacional de Arte she advised the documentation and research of popular culture while also serving as organizer for the phonograms collection and editor of the Phonographic Series from 1982 to 1996. Travassos was a cofounder of the Brazilian Association of Ethnomusicology (ABET), and she served as secretary of the organization from 2002 to 2004. She acted as consultant to the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, where she worked to document intangible cultural heritage related to the jongo and viola-de-cocho. Travassos was the author of Os mandarins milagrosos: Arte e etnografia em Mário de Andrade e Béla Bartók (1997) and Modernismo e música brasileira (1999). She will be remembered for her endless generosity with her knowledge, time, and resources as a researcher and teacher.


Click for larger view
View full resolution

Katherine Johanna Hagedorn. Courtesy of Pomona College.

katherine johanna hagedorn, professor of music, director of Pomona College’s ethnomusicology program, and ordained Santería priestess, passed away on November 12, 2013, at her home in Claremont, California. [End Page 164] She will be remembered for her dedication to understanding and teaching the music and dance of Santería and batá drumming. Hagedorn first experienced Afro-Cuban music as a graduate student at Brown University in 1988. Immediately she was struck by the intensity of the experience; she undertook fieldwork in Cuba the next year, and after several extended stays in the country she eventually became initiated into Santería. She began teaching at Pomona College in 1993, where she remained part of the music faculty for the rest of her life. At Pomona, she also oversaw the Balinese gamelan and taught courses on music and gender, the African diaspora, and protest song. In 2000, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education named her the California Professor of the Year. Hagedorn authored Divine Utterances: The Performance of Afro-Cuban Santería (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001), which won the Alan Merriam Prize for best ethnography in 2002. In the same year she received the Wig Teaching Award from Pomona College.


Click for larger view
View full resolution

carolina (carol e.) robertson, ethnomusicologist and environmental activist, died peacefully on Sunday, January 5, 2014 in the high Andes of Mendoza, Argentina after a long battle with cancer. Dr. Robertson was an extraordinary person whose beliefs, actions, and politics of social justice had a tremendous effect on her students, colleagues, and communities. From 1980–2006, Dr. Robertson was a Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland, with adjunct appointments in Anthropology, Latin American Studies, and Women’s Studies. She also taught at the University of Pittsburgh, The Tuskegee Institute, Columbia University, the Institute of Anthropology and Latin American Thought in Buenos Aires, the University of Santiago de Compostela, the University of Valparaíso in Chile, and several other institutions in Spain and Latin America.

Dr. Robertson began her life as a musician and ethnomusicologist in Argentina and Mexico, completing her training on the violin and music theory at the National Conservatory of Córdoba, Argentina (1965) and a [End Page 165] Bachelor of Sciences in music and anthropology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (1970). She earned the Ph.D. in ethnomusicology and folklore at Indiana University in 1975, working primarily with Alan Merriam. Throughout her life, Dr. Robertson conducted fieldwork...

pdf

Share