Dear Friends,
On June 4, 2008, Bev Diamond turned 60. As a birthday tribute to her, Robin Elliot (University of Toronto) and Gordon Smith (Queen's University) are editing a book of essays and tributes by her colleagues, friends and former students to be published by Wilfred Laurier University. Robin and Gordon have asked me to coordinate a 9000-word collective contribution by Bev's former students. To help coordinate this effort, I am joined by several colleagues, including Virginia Caputo, Sam Cronk and Andra McCartney who will be 'looking in' on the blog and furthering group discussion.
The editors are particularly interested in your thoughts on four topics that are close to Bev's heart:
1) Music and gender;
2) Indigenous popular musics;
3) Music instruments as cultural metaphor;
4) The historiography of Canadian music.
I suspect, however, that there are many more topics we might like to raise, including, for instance, Bev's pedagogical techniques. Sam is interested in exploring Bev's thoughts on the broader role of the academy in terms of ethnomusicology and Canadian culture. Virginia is interested in discussing Bev's influence on the gendered understanding of identity through music. Andra is keen to set up a separate forum where sound makers could contribute to the dialogue through composition and remixing. We could then establish a web page that would be linked with the essays. Of course, other forms of art are welcome too (perhaps we should include a sample of Bev's famous 'doodling'?).
There are several ways to set up this forum. We could establish a blog for each topic, but that would exclude possible cross-discussions, and I believe these could be quite rich. It seems more fitting, given the complex ways in which Bev thinks through and draws together different issues, to have one blog where individuals can respond to specific postings, sometimes 'leapfrogging' other discussions, but with the possibility of interweaving ideas.
Bev is aware of this project and gives us her blessing. She might even be logging in to check the shape of the discussions from time to time. She humbly has asked us, however, that the reflections be limited to ideas and the field, as opposed to her as an individual. We will attempt to respect her wishes, although I suspect this request will occasionally be overruled.
We will be establishing the blog on Tuesday, September 5 and it will remain active until October 1. We will be editing the work during the month of October. If you are interested in contributing, please contact me at:
pegleyk@queensu.ca
I will then log you into the blog. The forum is quite accessible, although you will want to use Firefox to access the webpage. Please download this program if you do not already have it on your computer.
If you have e-mail addresses for any of Bev's other former students, please pass them along. I'd like to invite as many folks as possible.
We are very excited about this project, and, while several of us are functioning as stewards, we see this as a truly collaborative effort. We hope you will be able to participate in this dialogue, and honor our friend, teacher and colleague.
With best wishes,
Kip Pegley
Queen's University
