In bidding 2020 adieu, we take a moment to celebrate a smattering of the work we’ve shared during a very unusual fall term.

Dr. Christine Getz’s chapter “Milan: Imperial City and Theater of the World,” was published in A Companion to Music at the Hapsburg Courts in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (ed. Andrew Weaver). 

Ph.D. candidate Cody Norling’s chapter, “’To improve the musical taste, capacity and voices of our people’: The Rise of Public Art-Music Interests Amidst the Rise and Fall of the Iowa State Normal Academy of Music, 1867–1871,” appears in The Making of the Midwest: Essays on the Formation of Midwestern Identity, 1787-1900 (ed. Jon Lauck).

Dr. Anabel Maler presented a paper titled “The Signing Voice” at the Society for Ethnomusicology, Drs. Maler and Robert Komaniecki presented “Rhythmic Techniques in Signed Rap” for the American Musicological Society, and Dr. Getz presented on Fabrizio Dentice’s Lamentations at the Convegno Annuale della Società Italiana di Musicologia.

FilmScene, Iowa City’s independent cinema, recognized Dr. Nathan Platte as its 2020 Visionary Advocate for cohosting and producing FilmCastPodScene. The podcast, which includes interviews with filmmakers and conversations with local moviegoers, is a local partnership that seeks to sustain community among film enthusiasts while theaters remain mostly closed.

Colloquium thrived over Zoom throughout the fall term,

and we were especially thrilled to host guest scholar Matthew Mugmon (University of Arizona) and an alt-academic career panel featuring Leslie Finer (U of Iowa, Office of Community Engagement), Hang Nguyen (Iowa State Historical Society), and Amanda Sewell (Interlochen Public Radio). Drs. Matthew Arndt, Marian Wilson Kimber, Sarah Suhadolnik, Trevor Harvey, Robert Komaniecki, and Nathan Platte also led discussions on professional development topics and hosted weekly social hours where students and faculty met remotely to share experiences and connect.