Wow, what a busy spring. In addition to visits to the Center by Jonathan Sterne, Hugo Zemp, Deborah Wong, Klisala Harrison, and Jonathan Shannon, we've got a search going on for 2 new Mellon postdoctoral fellows in the department. (Which reminds me, by the way, that ethnomusicologist Josh Pilzer from UC Santa Barbara, will be speaking in the department on Wed. April 18 at 3 PM). This is what the Center is all about -- dialogue, conversation, exchange. We're delighted to host so many visitors, but it does get exhausting managing all the details

In other news, still not formally announced on our front page but coming soon, the Center's partnership with the Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies enters a new and wonderful phase this summer, as we prepare to send three undergraduate students, one postdoctoral fellow, and one of our alumni off to Japan for 6 weeks (all expenses paid!) to study Gagaku with master performers. We're very excited to announce that the following members of our 2006-7 Gagaku course and ensemble will be making the trip (instruments listed next to names):
Amy Gardner (Barnard) --Hichiriki
Ben Siegelman (Columbia)--Hichiriki
Teresa Wojtasiewicz (Barnard) -- Ryuteki
Ruth Rosenberg (Mellon postdoc fellow) --Ryuteki

These students will be accompanied on the trip by David Novak, PhD, who has been co-teaching and co-directing our Japanese music courses and ensemble this year. Dr. Novak will continue on to research in Osaka. The rest will remain in Tokyo for 6 weeks for intensive private lessons. Full details will be announced on our front page in a week or so. Congratulations to all! We hope this is the first of many such summer exchanges.

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So, check out the amazing Google map of CU ethnousicology field projects on our front page right now! Last Thursday, Google updated its GoogleMaps API to enable users to create their own detailed GIS maps on Google, and with a little improvisation and a little help, we've figured out how to embed our developing map projects on ethnocenter. org. The first map shows where our current students' field projects are located, and provides links to their bios or -- if they have them -- project websites. It also shows you where faculty and alumni have worked, and where the Center has ongoing projects. Pretty impressive stuff when you see it all on one map. This project will grow in coming months, so stay tuned.

But the coolest thing of all is the KML -- if you click on this link, and download the associated KML file (it will be called "MS" and you might need to add the extension .kml once it's downloaded) -- you can open up this map in Google Earth and browse our project roster in three-dimensional splendor.

If you haven't played with Google's "Earth" browser [download it here for free, Mac or PC] boy are you in for a treat. It's especially delightful for kids, because it allows you to "travel" on a three dimensional satellite-photographed globe, and now to browse all the markups that people are adding to the globe in MyMaps. But its uses as simple but powerful GIS application for the masses are just now being imagined. In some ways, this technology could revolutionize ethnomusicology's integration with cultural geography and change some of the ways we imagine "fieldwork" in a multi-sited, global paradigm. All ethnomusicologists should learn to use this tool. It's amazing. The applications for data visualization, fieldwork collaboration, and publishing research are endless.

In other upcoming news, our MA student Megan Height has won a summer FLAS award to study Spanish in Mexico, and our PhD alumna Ada Helbig has received a 6 month Postdoctoral Fellowship from the IREX Individual Advanced Research Opporunities Program and an 8 month Advanced Research Fellowship from the American Councils for International Education Research Scholar Program. Anna Stirr, currently working Nepal with support from Fulbright and SSRC, has won a PEO Sisterhood fellowship for next year. PhD student Melissa Gonzalez has won an OMA Summer Merit Fellowship, and several other students have won departmental summer fellowships (full announcement coming soon). The track record of our students in grant competitions continues to be the best in the country among all ethnomusicology (and most cultural anthropology) programs.

Finally, congratulations also to MA student Sara Snyder, elected treasurer of MACSEM (the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology). And in some exciting news, Columbia's Center for Ethnomusicology has agreed to host MACSEM's 2008 spring meeting. More news on that soon!

Lots else going on, proper announcements to follow on the home page. I just haven't had the time to get all this properly announced yet.

Other news -- I will be in Bloomington, Indiana, for a conference of Boulton archivist, from thursday the 12th through monday, the 15th. I will be visiting Ohio State University's department of music on May 15.

Aaron Fox