Hearty congratulations are in order for a number of Columbia Ethnomusicology students:
First, three students are now alumni! We congratulate Andrew Eisenberg, Morgan Luker, and Ryan Skinner, each of whom has successfully defended his dissertation.
We also congratulate Tyler Bickford, winner of a Columbia University Whiting Fellowship.
Congratulations to Farzaneh Hemmasi, who has won a dissertation fellowship for 2009-10 from the Middle East Institute.
Congratulations to Sara Snyder, who has won a summer research fellowship from the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life.
Columbia ethnomusicology PhD student Ryan Skinner has just published his first children's book: Sidikiba's Kora Lesson.
Ten year-old Sidikiba is about to be initiated into the world of the kora, a twenty-one stringed West African harp performed by his family for seventy generations. To become a kora player, like his father and grandfather before him, Sidikiba must honor and respect the wisdom of his elders, trust in the mystical secrets of his community, and, above all else, be patient and practice hard...
Sidikiba's Kora Lesson is the story of a child's encounter with a rich cultural heritage set in a modern African city, where learning to balance the new and the old is part of growing up. Through sound, pictures, and text, Sidikiba's Kora Lesson comes alive for readers and music lovers of all ages!
