We are pleased to announce that, after several semesters on hold, the Ethnomusicology Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is again ready to accept graduate students, starting Spring 2024 (application deadline August 1, 2023). The program is headed by Dr. R. Anderson Sutton, with additional staff resources that include four other scholars with PhDs in ethnomusicology (one affiliated faculty member and four other part-time lecturers), and an able cadre of ensemble teachers, which allows us to offer a wide range of academic and performance courses. We encourage applicants from all regions. There are a number of funding sources available on a competitive basis. Interested parties should contact Prof. Sutton at rasutton@hawaii.edu for information prior to applying.
Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology
The Ethnomusicology Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa has a long-standing reputation for excellence in the study of world music, especially the music of Asian and Pacific cultures. The program is distinctive for a number of reasons. It is situated in a unique geo-cultural environment known for its diverse population and great variety of active and vibrant music cultures. Hawai‘i’s mid-Pacific location and proximity to Asia and Pacific Basin countries ensure frequent contact with musicians, scholars, and institutions from all over the region. The program is committed to close mentoring of students and helping students to develop a broad network of contacts.
Participation in musical activity is an integral part of the University of Hawai‘i program, as is the study of theoretical problems such as the relation of music to social change, globalization, identity, diaspora, politics, commerce, dance, and theater. The focus on socio-cultural formation and on musical practice is encouraged by the participatory approach the program offers.
Another distinctive feature of the University of Hawai‘i is that ethnomusicology is an integral part—both in organization, and in spirit—of the Music Department. The department has a long record of promoting musical pluralism throughout the university music experience and at all levels of music education, as a basis for music composition, and as part of choral and instrumental performance.
With a number of recent retirements, the program is currently in a state of transition. The UHM remains strongly committed to the program as it undergoes some important changes. Updates will be posted promptly on the website.
Specific geo-cultural areas of current and recent focus: Hawaiʻi/Polynesia, Korea, Japan, Okinawa, China, South Asia/Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Performance classes vary from semester to semester and in recent years have included: Beijing opera music, Chinese ensemble, Hawaiian choral singing, Hawaiian hula and chant, Hawaiian ensemble, Hawaiian slack key guitar, Japanese gagaku orchestra, Japanese kabuki music, Japanese koto, Japanese shakuhachi, Javanese and Balinese gamelan, Nepali ensemble, Okinawan uta-sanshin, Samoan music and dance, and Tahitian music and dance. Courses in Philippine, Indian, Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean dance complement the offerings of the Music Department.
In addition to courses in Ethnomusicology, students will find strong support in the related fields of Anthropology, Art History, Asian Studies, Cultural Studies, Dance, Geography, Hawaiian Studies, Linguistics, History, Pacific Island Studies, Religion, and Theater and Dance. UHM offers a wide range of Asian and Pacific language courses–for Asia: Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, Filipino, Ilocano, Khmer, Vietnamese, Hindi/Urdu, and Sanskrit; for the Pacific: Hawaiian, Tahitian, Samoan, Tongan, Maori, and Chamorro. The Music Department sponsors frequent concerts and lectures by visiting and local musicians as well as faculty and students. Ethnomusicology also is actively involved in such co-sponsored activities as productions of Beijing opera, Balinese dance, Javanese shadow puppetry, and Japanese kabuki. These productions afford students an opportunity to study with master teachers from Asia who came for performance preparation to supplement strong local resources.
Hamilton Library is an on-campus resource known worldwide for its Hawai‘i-Pacific Collection and its Asia Collection. Sinclair Library houses the music collection and the Harry C. and Nee-Chang Wong Audiovisual Center, which has an excellent collection of audio and audio-visual resources from Pacific Basin countries. Various centers in the School for Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies sponsor conferences, lecture series, and interdisciplinary courses that bring well-known Asian and Pacific scholars to the university. The East-West Center (located on the UHM campus) is a major research institution for Asian and Pacific affairs and its Arts Program brings performing artists from these regions to present concerts and lecture-demonstrations. All of these centers also serve as meeting places for the large number of international scholars and government officials that pass through Honolulu and are important resources for information about current events in the region.
The Bernice P. Bishop Museum and the Mission Houses Museum are community resources of importance for Pacific Studies; the Honolulu Academy of Art and the Doris Duke Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art are international centers for Asia Studies. There is a wide variety of on-going community events within Honolulu’s extensive Asian and Pacific Islander communities.
Qualifications
A national of an Asian or Pacific country who demonstrates exceptional potential for contributing to ethnomusicology in his/her home country. An incoming student who is admitted as a regular student in the Master of Arts or Doctor of Philosophy in Music-Ethnomusicology Program by the Graduate Division of the University of Hawai‘i.
Fellowship Application Deadline
15 January every year For further information contact:
Chairperson, Ethnomusicology Music Department University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa 2411 Dole Street Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822, USA
Telephone: 808-956-2177 Fax: 808-956-9657
Course of Study
Course |
Credits |
| 661 Bibliography & Library Resources in Music | 3 |
| 600c Seminar in Ethnomusicology (3 cr) | 3 |
| 670_ Regional Music (3cr) (B) Asia (C) Oceania | 3–6 |
| 678b Advanced Problems in Ethnomusicology: Transcription | 3 |
| Ethnomusicology courses (may include 699 Directed Work) | 2–5 |
| Related music courses | 6–9 |
| 700 Thesis Research (V) A research problem developed and presented in accordance with prevailing standards of scholarship for the field. The RILM form must be completed for the thesis. | 8 |
| Minimum Credits in Music | 30 |
Plan A students enroll in a minimum of 8 credits of MUS 700 Thesis Research and must be enrolled in at least one credit of MUS 700 the semester they graduate. Enrollment in 1 credit of GRAD 700F: Thesis Research is considered full-time status.
Course of Study
Course |
Credits |
| 661 Bibliography & Library Resources in Music | 3 |
| 600c Seminar in Ethnomusicology (3 cr) | 3 |
| 670_ Regional Music (3cr) (B) Asia (C) Oceania | 3 |
| 678b Advanced Problems in Ethnomusicology: Transcription | 3 |
| Ethnomusicology courses (may include 699 Directed Work) (e.g. MUS 311_, 312, 411_, 412, 413, 478, 479, 670_, 678_, 699) | 6 |
| Related music courses outside Ethnomusicology | 6 |
| Electives in music | 3 |
| 695 Master’s Plan B Project | 3 |
| Minimum Credits in Music | 30 |
Plan B students must take a minimum of 18 credits in graduate-level courses numbered 600 and above. These credits may apply toward both the general 30-credit minimum and the Department of Music minimum of 18-credits in music.
Plan B Project and research checkpoint All students completing the 30 credits of MA work will submit a formal document as part of the Plan B Project (MUS 695) and will defend their research in an oral examination. This final oral defense of the paper or project serves as a research checkpoint. Plan B scholarly papers will be submitted for publication, the student working closely with the adviser to identify appropriate publications and assure conformity to the publication style and standards of the target journal. Plan B project documentation will be archived in the Ethnomusicology Archive and digitally available to researchers and the community.
All students who complete the requirements and successfully pass the defense are eligible to receive the MA degree in Music, Ethnomusicology (Plan B). Those who find they prefer a career path that does not require the PhD or who do not demonstrate strong potential to succeed in the PhD will be offered the MA as an exit option and will graduate with a terminal MA in Music, Ethnomusicology (Plan B). The Plan B offers students a strong foundation in the theories and methodologies of Ethnomusicology, exposure to a range of geo-cultural areas, and the opportunity to study a selected topic or geo-cultural area in depth, all of which prepare the student for careers in music or community-based organizations that benefit from workers who are trained in cultural sensitivity and who possess knowledge of how culture and the arts function in a modern, global world.
Continuation in the PhD program Students who wish to continue in the PhD program in Music, ethnomusicology track, and who demonstrate the potential to do so successfully will submit a memo requesting continuation to the Graduate Chair, who in consultation with the adviser will form a five-member committee comprised of all Ethnomusicology professors plus remaining members from Level Three Graduate Faculty from other areas of the Music department. All members of the committee must approve of the student’s continuation, which will be determined by performance in coursework, the quality of the paper/project and its accompanying exam, and the demonstration of the inter-personal skills and personal traits necessary to conduct effective field work (e.g., inter-cultural sensitivity, ethical decision-making, determination, creativity, resourcefulness, ability to adjust, commitment to the research community, etc.). This proposal allows students who are outstanding candidates for doctoral work to move forward seamlessly in the PhD student, receiving the MA in Music (Ethnomusicology, Plan B) en route to the PhD in Music, Ethnomusicology track.
If a regular member of the committee cannot be physically present, a request must be sent to the Graduate Chair with as much advance notice as possible, and not later than two weeks prior to the defense date.
It is strongly recommended that the student plan to defend with all committee members present. Under extenuating circumstances, the student’s Committee Chair must petition the Graduate Chair at least six weeks in advance of defense to allow one of the following to participate in the defense remotely: the student, or the Chair. The student should request his/her Committee Chair to write a memo to the Graduate Chair that explains the extenuating circumstances.
If the Committee Chair is requesting remote participation, a written request shall be sent to the Department chair and Graduate Chair. If the Graduate Chair is chairing a committee, and requesting remote participation, a written request shall be sent to the Department Chair and Associate Chair.
Email is an acceptable form of written notice.
A remote participation memo will be submitted by the Graduate Chair to Graduate Student Services no less than two weeks, except in cases of emergency, prior to the date of the defense (with the calendar announcement of the defense). The names of all members with notations next to who is participating remotely and their role (e.g., chair, member, and/or student) will be included. In cases of emergency, the form should still be submitted prior to the defense.
Remote participation must include the following, which must be organized and ensured by the committee chair. Logistics for Remote Defense Participation
- All materials, including any visual aids, have been distributed in advance to the remote committee participants no later than 48-hours prior to the scheduled defense;
- The remote participants must be able to see and hear any presentation being made and any discussions as appropriate;
- The candidate and the Committee Chair must be visually present throughout, and all committee members must be able to participate in audio conversations;
- All remote participants must participate in the entire course of the meeting.
Other options for committees with traveling or physically absent members appear on the Graduate Division website.
Dr. R. Anderson Sutton
UH email: rasutton@hawaii.edu
UH Phone: 808-956-8922
Office: Music Building 218
Anderson Sutton is Professor of Music and head of the Ethnomusicology program at UHM, offering graduate and undergraduate courses, overseeing the performance ensembles, and supervising graduate students in Ethnomusicology. He holds a BA in music from Wesleyan University, an MA in ethnomusicology from the University of Hawaiʻi and a PhD in musicology from the University of Michigan. From 1982-2013 he served on the Music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in ethnomusicology, led the Javanese gamelan ensemble, and served three terms as director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies. His teaching ranges from world music surveys and music of Asia to seminars on musical aesthetics, oral and written traditions, popular and fusion music, and music and audio-visual media. He has also chaired 20 Ethnomusicology MA thesis committees and 13 Ethnomusicology PhD dissertation committees.
His research has focused on musical traditions of Central and East Java and, from the 1990s, of South Sulawesi. He is the author of three books: Calling Back the Spirit: Music, Dance, and Cultural Politics in Lowland South Sulawesi (Oxford University Press, 2002), Traditions of Gamelan Music in Java: Musical Pluralism and Regional Identity (Cambridge University Press, 1991) and Variation in Central Javanese Gamelan Music (Northern Illinois University, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 1993). Since 2001 he has expanded his research to recent musical developments in South Korea, and was contributing editor for the two-volume series Perspectives on Korean Music (Ministry of Culture, 2010, 2011). In addition, he has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on music in Indonesia and Korea, including aspects of music television and musical hybridity in both countries.
While serving in administration at UHM (from 2013-2022), Dr. Sutton remained active as a researcher and as a resource for students in Ethnomusicology. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Asian Music and as founding editor of the University of Hawaii Press Asia Pacific Flows series, and is past First Vice President of the Society for Ethnomusicology.
Dr. Anna Stirr (cooperating faculty)
UH email: stirr@hawaii.edu
UH Phone: 808-956-9196
Office: Moore Hall 409, Department of Asian Studies
Profile: Anna Stirr
Anna Stirr is Associate Professor of Asian Studies and the Director of the UHM’s Center for South Asian Studies. She holds a BA in music and religious studies from Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and an MA, MPhil, and PhD in ethnomusicology from Columbia University. She has also taught at Oxford University, Leiden University, and the New School. Trained in both Western and Hindustani classical traditions, she also performs Nepali folk music as a singer, flutist, and percussionist.
Dr. Stirr’s research focuses on music, dance, language, intimacy, and politics in South Asia, particularly in Nepal and the Himalayan region. She is the author of Singing Across Divides: Music and Intimate Politics in Nepal (Oxford University Press, 2017), which won the 2019 Bernard S. Cohn Prize for first books on South Asia from the Association for Asian Studies. Her research on music and communist politics in Nepal has resulted in multiple articles and the documentary film Singing A Great Dream: The Revolutionary Songs and Life of Khusiram Pakhrin (2019). Dr. Stirr is leading the translation and accompanying audio and video recording of performances of six works by the Nepali musicologist Subi Shah, to appear as Music and Dances of Central Nepal: The Works of Subi Shah (Open Book Publishers, expected 2024). She is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal Modern Asian Studies, and the editorial boards of the journal Himalaya and the UH Press book series Asia Pacific Flows. In recognition of her performance and research, Ali Miya Folklore Academy in Pokhara, Nepal, awarded her the 2016 Ali Miya Prize, and the Government of Nepal awarded her the Jana Sewa Shree Medal in 2021.
Dr. Stirr teaches courses on South Asian music, along with topical courses on Asian performing arts and related subjects. She is available to supervise MA students in Asian Studies and Ethnomusicology, and PhD students in Ethnomusicology.
More about Dr. Stirr’s research, performance, and teaching is available on her website, www.annastirr.com.