Current News‎ > ‎

Farewell to the Caribbean and a Successful SEMSEC 2012

posted Mar 21, 2012, 6:39 AM by Elizabeth Clendinning
The 2012 meeting for the Southeast and Caribbean Chapter of the Society of Ethnomusicology, the first ever conference for the society to be held in the Caribbean, met at the Academica de Ciencias de la República Dominicana in Santo Domingo from March 9-11, 2012. The program featured a number of special events, including:
  • An organology workshop of Afro-Dominican instruments by Edis Sánchez and his students
  • A formal reception and film screening “The Duke of Bachata”
  • A bachata workshop by Dirección Nacional de Folklore
  • A keynote speech by Gage Averill (Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of British Columbia and Past President for the Society for Ethnomusicology) on the Lomax Haiti Recordings Project
  • An excursion to San José de Los Llanos
  • A Latin Jazz concert by Paul Austerlitz y su Quinteto
  • 27 paper and film presentations, including two panel sessions conducted entirely in Spanish
This conference has opened up many new possibilities for SEMSEC as we continue to work with our colleagues throuhout our region, which stretches from the Carolinas and Tennessee to the north down to Trinidad and Tobago in the south. Speaking on behalf of our friends and colleagues throughout the chapter, we would particularly like to thank Local Arrangements Coordinator Martha Ellen Davis, former SEMSEC Vice-President (now President) Rebecca Sager, and everyone at the Academica de Ciencias de la República Dominicana for making this conference possible.

The conference details have now been moved under "Past Conferences" under the page 2012 Chapter Conference.  The new officers and the Dale A. Olsen prize winner will be posted within the next few weeks. We look forward to seeing everyone next year at SEMSEC 2013!

Elizabeth Clendinning, webmaster
Comments