Kent State University Press, Indiana University Press and Temple University Press have been selected by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a one-year planning grant, the first phase of a proposed five-year project to establish a collaborative publication series in ethnomusicology. Ethnomusicology is the study of music in its cultural context. Over the next year, grant funds will support the three publishers in taking four key steps in the planning process:
- Survey scholars and librarians to ascertain the ways in which end users prefer to receive content—both text and audiovisual;
- Investigate partnerships with third parties in information technology for the effective presentation and dissemination of content;
- Meet with scholarly societies to explore the benefits of collaboration between publishers and scholars in the development and dissemination of new ethnomusicology scholarship; and
- Develop the logistics of collaboration among the three partner presses.
Through their cooperative series, the three presses will seek to broaden opportunities for emerging scholars in ethnomusicology to publish monographs, typically their first books, together with related fieldwork materials in digital form, and to offer scholars in ethnomusicology and related fields enhanced means of accessing these materials via the World Wide Web. In so doing, the presses’ goal is to assist in disseminating scholarship and developing new methodologies in both research and publication.
Regarding the grant, Janet Rabinowitch, director of Indiana University Press, lead publisher in the group, says, “This marks the start of something new among university presses. With the support of the Mellon Foundation we are combining the resources of three university presses to further our core mission: the publication of significant new scholarship. Indiana University Press is pleased to have this opportunity to partner with our colleagues at Temple and Kent State to advance ethnomusicology research.”
“We’re delighted that the Mellon funding allows us to revive our World Musics series under the editorship of Denise Seachrist [interim dean for academic and student services, regional campuses, and professor of music],” says Will Underwood, director of Kent State University Press. “With this new grant and the collaboration of our colleagues at Temple and Indiana, we look forward to publishing pioneering ethnomusicology scholarship.”
The process to establish a collaborative series was kicked off in May 2007 when Harriet Zuckerman, Senior Vice President of the Mellon Foundation, invited members of the Association of American University Presses to submit joint proposals to publish monographs in underserved and emerging areas of scholarship. More than thirty groups responded, with the group comprised of the presses at Indiana, Kent State, and Temple universities being one of just four to receive final approval from Mellon for funding.