One of the more unusual aspects of being an archivist is that people often have no idea what you do. This, shall we say, lack of information has inspired me to write an occasional series about what it is that archives and archivists do.
I thought I would begin with something that would be of particular interest to ethnomusicologists. Knowledge repatriation.
One of the many wonderful things about working in the Ethnomusicology Archive is the people that you have the opportunity to meet... students, scholars, researchers, musicians...
One of my fondest memories is that of iconic Australian folk singer John Williamson visiting the Archive in February 2004. (Professor Anthony Seeger organized the visit.)
David Gamble, who passed away in October 2011, is considered “the” scholar of the Gambia. He was employed by the Colonial Office during the late 1940s and 1950s, and his published works include extensive monographs on the Fula, Wolof and Mandinka languages of the Gambia.
Pages
"Sounding Board" is intended as a space for scholars to publish thoughts and observations about their current work. These postings are not peer reviewed and do not reflect the opinion of Ethnomusicology Review. We support the expression of controversial opinions, and welcome civil discussion about them. We do not, however, tolerate overt discrimination based on race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or religion, and reserve the right to remove posts that we feel might offend our readers.