Global Popular Music Faculty Research Fellowship
Platform:  A Research Laboratory in the Arts and Humanities
Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Application deadline: November 20, 2020
Decisions announced: December 20, 2020
Submit proposals to:   platform@indiana.edu

Charge: The Global Popular Music team is seeking applications for research and creative activity fellowships that relate to next year’s focus, Musical Bodies. In our theme for 2021, the Global Popular Music Team of Platform asks after the status of the body in the production and reception of musical sound.  

Projects should have some interest in bringing to light the following questions: What is a “musical body”? Is it organic or technological, individual or collective, affective or discursive? How do the dynamics of embodiment—where gender, age, race, and sexuality play defining roles—affect popular music, and how does music address such issues of embodiment? In what ways do "musical bodies" sound? Musical bodies are also free or incarcerated, migrant or rooted, enduring or ephemeral. Musical bodies are bodies of work—an artist or ensemble’s known corpus; but also, what’s in the vault, or cast off as an “alternate take.” Global Popular Music represents a uniquely variegated prism through which to ask questions about the transformations of embodiment through the ages and as experienced today.

Selected applicants must commit to attending monthly meeting of the Global Popular Music team and present a portion of their work at a symposium to be held in Fall of 2021

Eligibility:  All IU-Bloomington tenured and tenure-track faculty are eligible to apply. Those employed at IUB but not on the tenure track who are assessed on the basis of their research or creative activity are also eligible.

Upon acceptance of the fellowship, the Fellow will be awarded 1 course release, to be approved by the chair or unit head of the candidate’s department. Applicants applying for creative projects can also request funding for supplies. If agreeable to the Fellow's home department, the course release could be used as early as Spring 2021.

Requirements: 

• A 2-3 page proposal clearly detailing 1) the scope and nature of the project; 2) how a fellowship will aid in its completion; 3) full project timeline and expected end date; 4) intended audiences; and 5) anticipated deliverables.
• CV
• Letter of support from your Chair or Dean. If applicant is not TT, the letter should detail the role of research measures in evaluative criteria.

Responsibilities:  The primary responsibility of Research Fellows is to advance their research projects in the context of the collaborative program directed by the Faculty Director. In addition to concrete advances on their research project, Research Fellows will also articulate some kind of pedagogical outcome—a new class, engagement with interns, engagement with undergraduate performance and research events, etc.

Criteria:  Successful applicants will have a clear and compelling research or creative activity plan and will be able to articulate how that research contributes to the advancement of the team’s work as a whole. In addition, successful applicants will have a compelling, concrete proposal for a pedagogical outcome. Proposals that include components for undergraduate research and community involvement are especially welcome.

If you have questions about your eligibility, your proposal, or Platform, please contact us at platform@indiana.edu