Congratulations to Postdoctoral Associate Ian Copeland, who was recently awarded the Richard Waterman Junior Scholar Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) for his article “Pop Goes the Postcolony: Britain Remixes Hugh Tracey’s Malawi” (Ethnomusicology Forum, 2022). The award, presented by the SEM Popular Music Section at the SEM Annual Meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, recognizes the best article in the ethnomusicological study of popular music written by a junior scholar.
In the article, Copeland offers a critical evaluation of a mid-2010s humanitarian endeavor that sought to remix and re-release historical field recordings, all for the ostensible benefit of ongoing charitable projects in contemporary Malawi, the recordings point-of-origin. Combining close listening and discourse analysis with fieldwork conducted in Malawi and South Africa, Copeland articulates and advocates for a critical approach to musically tinged humanitarian projects in the global South.
About the article, the prize committee wrote: “Copeland adeptly navigates the many musical and political entanglements of the project and its multi-site reception, weaving together a discussion of the long-distance aestheticization of dimly apprehended others, a consideration of the asymmetrical politics of attempting to provide monetary aid and musical repatriation from afar, and a critical engagement with a major figure from ethnomusicology’s own disciplinary history. These combine to make a timely and substantial contribution to the ethnomusicological study of popular music, shedding light on the complex reception, circulation, and re-mediation of music.”
Ian Copeland is the inaugural Postdoctoral Associate at Pitt’s African Studies Center, where he is also appointed to the Department of Music. In addition to receiving the Waterman Prize, he also presented a paper at the Ottawa meeting (“When Aid Doesn’t Fit: Listening for Humanitarian Disavowal”) as a part of a larger panel for which fellow Pitt colleague Shalini Ayyagari, Associate Professor of Music, served as a discussant. Copeland’s article is available here.
