Global Popular Music Pre-Doctoral 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
Platform is a research laboratory committed to dynamic collaborative work in the arts and humanities. Funded by the Mellon Foundation and IU, it brings faculty artists and researchers together with graduate and undergraduate students to produce innovative projects on two topics: Indiana Studies and Global Popular Music
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.
The primary responsibility of the Pre-Doctoral Research Fellows is to advance their current work in the context of the collaborative program directed by the Global Popular Music Faculty Director. Selected applicants must also commit to attending monthly meetings of the Global Popular Music team and present a portion of their work at a symposium to be held in Fall 2021
Eligibility: All IU-Bloomington doctoral students are eligible to apply. Preference will be given to students who have advanced to candidacy by August 2021, but other students who have a specific project are also welcome to apply. Upon acceptance of the fellowship, the Fellow will be awarded 1 course release or equivalent, to be approved by the chair of their department or whoever supervises their teaching appointments.
Requirements:
- A letter of clearly detailing 1) the nature and scope of current project; 2) how the fellowship will aid in its completion; and 3) how collaborative participation on the team will enhance it.
- CV
- Letter of support from your dissertation director.
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 collaboration. Research projects that include components for undergraduate research, team collaboration, and community involvement are especially welcome.
If you have questions about your eligibility, your proposal, or Platform, please contact us at platform@indiana.edu