Sociomusicology: March 2020

3/21/20

Social Distancing and Scholarship

Ironically, the “social distancing” encouraged under pandemic conditions may actually create good conditions for some kinds of scholarship, with fewer distractions for those who are trying to complete projects. Under stressful conditions, it helps to have something meaningful to focus on while we wait for life to return to normal.

Recently I am making a lot of progress on a book co-authored with Prof. Jiaxing Xie entitled On Music Education: East-West Dialogues (Shanghai Education Press, forthcoming), and have been developing new volumes for the Deep Soundings series in historical ethnomusicology (Rowman & Littlefield press). Several postgraduate students are making great progress on their theses, which I mentor through videoconferencing, and my institution has agreed to offer a new PhD course entirely online, for which I am now preparing material. We are also having students develop music performance projects through online collaboration tools, which is likely to be very useful experience for them in the long term.

Over the past two months, I have completed reviews of articles and books for several refereed journals and academic presses: Music Education Research, World of Music, International Journal of Music Education, Research Studies in Music Education, Finnish Journal for Music Education, Research and Issues in Music Education, Nordic Yearbook for Music Education, Amsterdam University Press, Lund University Press, and Rowman & Littlefield. I have also approved some final edits to an article in Journal of Popular Music Education, sent a book proposal to Harvard University Press, and completed much work on a new book proposal for Rowman & Littlefield.

It seems we should always try to make the most of whatever conditions arise. Hopefully the pandemic will not turn out to be as bad as feared, but for now it is certainly threatening and great caution is warranted.

UPDATE: Online PhD Course in May 2020:
Click HERE for PhD-911: Non-Western Educational Philosophy and Policy.

3/16/20

Covid-19 Disruptions

Norway is now on lockdown with widespread quarantine measures due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Many processes will be much slower for a while now due to emergency conditions. This also impacts an array of music-related activities and events, including rehearsals and recording sessions, concerts, tours, conferences, private lessons, and classroom teaching. One can only wonder how long it may go on: 2 months, 6 months, more ... ?

Despite the formidable challenges, this is an ideal time to make music and write. I am staying home for about a month, developing new books and mentoring students (through videoconferencing) on their thesis writing.

Both above and below are images from our home in Norway, a good place to relax, make music, and write. In both January and February, shortly before the pandemic came to Norway, I greatly enjoyed hosting co-authors from abroad (USA and China).

I really hope the suffering and deaths can be minimized. Difficult times ahead.
As of today, Norway is officially the third worst country in the world for infections per capita, although we have seen relatively few deaths, and the situation is likely to keep changing.

Here are links for further information on Covid-19 in Norway:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2020/03/12/norway-says-no-to-international-travelers-as-emergency-coronavirus-measures-start/#651bdfc2b34d

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8104969/Norway-strongest-peacetime-measures-coronavirus-spreads.html

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

https://www.lifeinnorway.net/coronavirus-in-norway/

UPDATE: Online PhD Course in May 2020:
Click HERE for PhD-911: Non-Western Educational Philosophy and Policy.

Welcome to Sociomusicology

For a decade (since 2007), this website has offered musings on contemporary society and its music by David G. Hebert, PhD. He is a sociomusicologist specializing in global music education who has held academic positions with universities on five continents. Dr. Hebert is now a tenured full Professor with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen. There he leads the Grieg Academy Music Education (GAME) research group and manages the multinational government-funded Nordic Network for Music Education, which organizes annual intensive Master courses and exchange of teachers and students across eight countries. He is also a Visiting Professor in Sweden with the Malmo Academy of Music (Lund University), and an Honorary Professor in China with the Education University of Hong Kong.

Professor Hebert's research applies an international-comparative perspective to issues of pluralism, identity, and cultural relevance in music education, as well as processes by which new music traditions emerge and change - both sonically and socially - as they are adopted into institutions. Born in the 1970s, he is among the most widely-published and globally-active music scholars of his generation (h-index:20; i10-index:28), with professional activities in an average of 8 countries per year across the past decade (2008-2020).