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Ron Emoff
Associate
Professor, Ethno/musicology
School of Music, Department of Anthropology
Ohio State University-Newark
1179 University Blvd.
Newark, OH
43055
(740) 366-9271
emoff.1@osu.edu
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Ron Emoff is Associate Professor of Music and Anthropology at OSU-Newark.
He received the PhD in ethnomusicology from University of Texas at Austin,
where he also intensively studied anthropology and critical theory.
While a graduate student in Austin, he actively performed various musics on, among other things,
kora (a West African stringed instrument), accordion, violin, 'ud, and valiha
(a stringed instrument from Madagascar).
Dr. Emoff has performed ethnographic research
in Madagascar, Southwest Louisiana, and the French Antilles. His current research interests
include the evocation, creation, and sustenance of memory through music, colonialism
and postcolonialism, spirituality, musical constructions of self and community, and
establishing histories through musical production and reception.
Dr. Emoff's research and publication activity has been funded by Fulbright and Wenner Gren
Foundation for Anthropological Research Grants, a Wenner Gren Foundation Richard Carley Hunt
Fellowship, an Ohio State University College of the Arts Research Grant, several Ohio State
University Research and Scholarly Activities Grants, an Ohio State University-Newark Seed Grant,
and a grant from the Otto Kinkeldey Publication Endowment Fund of the American Musicological Society.
In 2003, Dr. Emoff was recipient of the Ohio State University at Newark Scholarly
Achievement Award; he was also recipient of the 2003 OSU Newark Service Award.
Dr. Emoff received the 2006 OSU Newark Award for Teaching Excellence.
In 2009 he was awarded the OSU Newark annual Scholarly Accomplishment Award
at the tenured professor level.
At Ohio State University-Newark, Dr. Emoff has taught Music Cultures Throughout the World,
Selective History of European Music, "Ethnic," Regional, and Border Musics in the United States,
World Beat in Africa, all undergraduate courses. During Fall 2003 he taught Musical Expression
in a Postcolonial State, a graduate ethnomusicology seminar on the
main campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, and more recently he
has taught the Graduate Introduction to Ethnomusicology seminar there.
Dr. Emoff has built a recording studio, sound analysis, and video production lab on the Newark campus
that houses the same state-of-the-art software and hardware used in professional international
recording studios. He teaches both honors and non-honors sections of a course entitled,
Recording Technology and the Music Business, MUS 345.01, in this new lab space.
In Spring 2010, Dr. Emoff will be teaching a graduate seminar in the Ohio State University School
of Music, Columbus campus, MUS 950.01, entitled “World Cinema and World Beat.”
Dr. Emoff directs the OSU Newark Afropop ensemble,
in which students learn to perform currently popular dance musics from throughout Africa.
Several performances both on- and off-campus are staged by the students each quarter.
He also coordinates the OSU Newark Great Performers Series, in which a diverse array of musical
and other talent is presented to the Newark community.
Dr. Emoff has a joint appointment as in the OSU Department of Anthropology,
and he teaches independent study and directed reading courses in Cultural Anthropology at OSU Newark.
He as well serves on graduate students’ committees in the OSU Anthropology Department.
Dr. Emoff's Publications
Books
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2009 |
Music and the
Performance of Identity on Marie-Galante, French Antilles.
Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Press, SOAS Musicology Series. |
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2002 |
RECOLLECTING
FROM THE PAST Musical Practice and Spirit Possession
on the East Coast of Madagascar. Wesleyan University Press,
Music and Culture Series. |
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2002 |
Mementos,
Artifacts, and Hallucinations from the Ethnograper's Tent.
London and NY: Routledge Press. |
Documentary Films
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2009 |
The Presence
of the Past: Madagascar, Music, and Devotion. New York: Lyrichord Discs, Inc., Ethnographic Film Series (DVD [54
minutes] with accompanying CD of additional musical examples,
extensive notes, photos, and glossary of Malagasy terms). |
Encyclopedia Entry
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2008 |
“Musical Practices on Madagascar: An Overview.” In Concise
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc. |
Journal Articles
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2008 |
“Truth, Talk, and History in the Non-Nation: Gwo Ka’s Place
on Marie-Galante, French Antilles.” Ethnomusicology Forum
(British Journal of Ethnomusicology). |
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In progress |
“Spiritism, Ecological Peril, Insularity: Malagasy World
Beat.” |
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2003 |
“Direct Current
Recall,” TDR (The Drama Review), 47(3): 32-44. New York
University/MIT Press. Richard Schechner, ed. |
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2002 |
“Phantom
Nostalgia and Recollecting (from) the Colonial Past in Tamatave,
Madagascar,” Ethnomusicology, 46 (2): 265-283. |
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2002 |
“Alterations in
Accordion Structure on the East Coast of Madagascar.” Musical
Performance, 3(2-4): 243-257. London: Harwood Academic
Publishers, Taylor and Francis Group. |
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2000 |
“Clinton, Bush,
and Hussein in Madagascar.” In The World of Music, Vol. 3. |
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2000 |
As guest editor,
preface to The World of Music, Vol. 3. |
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1998 |
“A Cajun Poetics
of Loss and Longing.” Ethnomusicology, 42(2):283-301. |
Book Chapters
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In press |
“Tromba Children,
Maresaka, and Postcolonial Malady in Madagascar.” In
Austronesian Soundscapes. Performing Arts in Oceania and
Southeast Asia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press (IIAS
Series), Birgit Abels, ed. |
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2004 |
“Spitting into
the Wind: Multi-Edged Environmentalism in Malagasy Song.” In
Island Musics, Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers, Kevin Dawe, ed. |
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2003 |
“Material Media
of Maresaka: Tromba Spirit Possession on the East Coast of
Madagascar.” In The Interrelatedness of Music, Religion and
Ritual in African Performance Practice. UK: Mellen Press, Daniel
Avorgbedor, ed. |
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2002 |
“Wildness in the
Heart of Town.” In Mementos, Artifacts, and Hallucinations from
the Ethnographer’s Tent. London and NY: Routledge Press Ron
Emoff and David Henderson, eds. |
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2002 |
“Introduction.”
In Mementos, Artifacts, and Hallucinations from the
Ethnographer’s Tent. London and NY: Routledge Press. Ron Emoff
and David Henderson, eds. |
Compact Discs
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2004 |
VINELO: Maître du
maro vany (valiha Antandroy) de Madagascar. Compact disc sound
recording of my field tapes; includes 10 page booklet of notes
and photograph. Genève, Switzerland: VDE Gallo, CD 1140. |
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2003 |
“Antandroy Tromba
Spirit Possession music by Magnampy Soa,” 3 sample tracks of
original field recordings in Madagascar for People, Places, and
Change, Music of the World, CD that accompanies school text
book. Austin, TX: Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston. |
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2001 |
Spirit Musics
from the East Coast of Madagascar. Paris:UNESCO/ Naive. Compact
disc sound recording of my field tapes; includes 10 page
booklet of notes and photographs. Auvidis 065, D8282. |
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2001 |
Accordions and
Ancestral Spirits, CD with booklet of extensive notes and
photographs, Genève, Switzerland: VDE Gallo, CD 1065. |
Photographs
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2000 |
Cover photo,
entitled “Le musicien malgache Tsiariagna jouant de l’akordôgna,”
of Cahiers de musiques traditionelles, “Métissages,” vol. 13. |
Reviews
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2009 |
Keeping the Embers Alive: Musicians of Zimbabwe by Myrna Capp, In Notes: The Quarterly Journal of
the Music Library Association, 65 (3): 514-516. |
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2007 |
The Rough Guide to the Music of Madagascar: Valiha & Marovany:
The Real Soundtrack to Madagascar, 2005. One compact disc. World
Music Network (UK) RGNET 1163 CD. Booklet (11 pp.) with notes in
English by Ian Anderson. In Ethnomusicology 51 (1): 159-62. |
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2006 |
The Weight of the Past: Living with History in Mahajanga,
Madagascar by Michael J. Lambek. New York, NY: Palgrave
Macmillan. Ethnos 71(2): 282-3. |
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2006 |
René Lacaille, Mapou. Compact disc. Riverboat Records/World Music Network, (UK)
TUGCD1033. Booklet (18 pp.) with notes in French and English,
and song texts in French, English, and Créole French (notes by
René Lacaille). In Ethnomusicology 50 (1). |
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2003 |
Madagascar côte
ouest: Antandroy, Masikoro, Vezo. 2001. Recorded in Madagascar
in 1963 by Charles Duvelle. Prophet 25, Philips Music Group
France. One compact disc (51’ 19’’). Booklet, 19 pages with
notes in French and English by Charles Duvelle; photos, map. In
Ethnomusicology (47) 2: 278-80. |
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2001 |
Rakoto Frah,
Flute Master of Madagascar (CD, Globe Style Recording). In
Yearbook for Traditional Music. |
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2001 |
Madagascar:
Musique des Sakalava Menabe/Hommage à Mama Sana (CD, Inedit,
Maison de Cultures de Monde). In Yearbook for Traditional
Music. |
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2000 |
Nationalists,
Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe by Thomas Turino,
University of Chicago Press. In Current Musicology, volume #70,
pp. 158-163. |
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1999 |
Madagascar:
Awakening the Spirits: Music in Tromba and Bilo Trance
Rituals (CD). In Yearbook For Traditional Music. |
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1998 |
The Garland
Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 1, Africa . Ruth Stone,
ed. In Notes. |
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1998 |
Any Sound You Can
Imagine: Making Music/Consuming Technology by Paul Théberge,
Wesleyan University Press. In Notes. |
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1998 |
Nightsong:
Performance, Power, and Practice in South Africa by Veit
Erlmann, University of Chicago Press. In American Ethnologist. |
Recent Invited Papers
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2008 |
Resurrecting
Place in the Non-Nation: Accordions,, Drumming, and the
Subsurreal on Marie-Galante, French Antilles, presented as part
of the OSU Newark Dean’s Faculty Lecture Series. |
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2007 |
Tromba Children,
Maresaka, and Healing Efficacy on the East Coast of Madagascar,
panel paper given at biennial Psychological Anthropology
meeting, Los Angeles. |
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2007 |
Truth, Talk, and
History in the Non-Nation: Gwo Ka’s Place on Marie-Galante,
French Antilles, paper presented at the OSU School of Music
Musicology Colloquium. |
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2005 |
Official Versions
of History in the Non-Nation: Drumming on Marie-Galante, French
West Indies, panel paper given at annual Society for
Ethnomusicology meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. |
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2003 |
Chair of panel
entitled, A Memory for Semblance, Society for Ethnomusicology
meeting, Miami, Florida; presentation on this panel of paper
entitled, Négritude on Marie-Galante: The Subsurreal and Looking
Back on an out of the Way Place. |
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2003 |
Spitting into the
Wind: Multi-edged Environmentalism in Malagasy Popular Song.
Indiana University Guest Scholar Colloquium, hosted by the
Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, and the Department
of African Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington. |
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2003 |
Négritude on
Marie-Galante: The Subsurreal and Looking Back on an out of the
Way Place, paper given as part of panel A Memory for Semblance,
at annual Society for Ethnomusicology meeting in Miami,
Florida. |
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2003 |
Mementos,
Artifacts, and Hallucinations from the Ethnographer’s Tent,
presented at St. Lawrence University, Department of Music. |
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2003 |
Musical Négritude
on Marie-Galante, French Antilles. Ohio State University, School
of Music, Guest Lecture Colloquium. |
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2002 |
Ethnography’s
Nervous System: Recent Fieldwork on Marie-Galante. University of
Virginia, School of Music Guest Speaker Colloquium. |
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2002 |
Squeezing the
Hyphen out of Tex-Mex: Norteño Accordion in Texas.OSU-Columbus,
Multi-Cultural Center, panel for Latin American Awareness Month. |
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2002 |
Direct-Current
Recall–Guest Lecturer Series, School of Music, Ohio State
University, Columbus. |
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2001 |
Clinton, Bush,
and Hussein in Madagascar–Ohio State University-Newark faculty
presentation. |
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