Anne K. Rasmussen
Professor, Scholar, Performer
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Welcome!
I am a professor of music and ethnomusicology and the (William M. and Annie B.) Bickers Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the College of William and Mary where I also direct the W&M Middle Eastern Music Ensemble. My research interests include music of the Middle East and the Islamicate world and music and multiculturalism in the United States. I have conducted extensive fieldwork in Indonesia and in Oman and among multicultural communities in the US and have hosted my research consultants from Oman and Indonesia in the U.S.
You may check out my research publications, my teaching and administration at W&M and my musical world on the subsequent pages.
Select Grants and Fellowships: ADD LINKS
Fulbright Senior Fellow 1999, 2017
Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center Fellow 2010
American Council of Learned Society 2021
American Institute for Indonesian Studies 2020 (deferred to 2022)
Professional Service to the Society for Ethnomusicology
I have been elected to the board of the Society for Ethnomusicology three times and served as president from 2015-2017. I am proud to be the first person from an undergraduate liberal arts institution to be elected President of the Society for Ethnomusicology and I am a strong advocate and exemplar for undergraduate ethnomusicology among me peers.
You can read my President's Essays for the SEM Newsletter here.I have been elected to the board of the Society for Ethnomusicology and served as president from 2015-2017.
Administration at W&M
My administrative portfolio includes more than ten years of administrative experience as director of interdisciplinary programs in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, as Chair of the Department of Music and the elected as the highest presiding officer of Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society, Alpha Chapter of Virginia.
Performance
As a musician, I blend teaching, research, and performance in a variety of musical styles. I sing and play the piano, ‘ud, qanun, and riqq, and I maintain a busy schedule of rehearsal and performance with the William & Mary Middle Eastern Music Ensemble that I founded in 1994. You may check out the W&M MEME here. You may find me "Performing in the Field" here.
Curriculum in Ethnomusicology
With 4 ethnomusicologists* on the faculty, William & Mary has more robust teaching power in Ethnomusicology than some graudate programs. The courses I offer regularly include Worlds of Music, Music Cultures of the Middle East, American Soundscapes: Music Migration and Resettlement, Orientalism, Exoticism and Music, and the W&M Middle Eastern Music Ensemble. I have also co-directed study tours to the Sultante of Oman in the Arabian Gulf and to Morocco with Professors Jonathan Glasser and Chuck Bailey from the Departments of Anthropology and Geology, respectively.
*Students should be on the lookout for courses taught by Professors Jonathan Glasser, Michael Iyanaga, and Max Katz.
William & Mary Students and the field of Ethnomusicology
Many students who are introduced to the field of ethnomusicology through Rasmussen's courses, academic conferences, and invited guests to the college, have accomplished stellar Senior Projects and Honors Theses. Many have pursed advanced degrees in ethnomusicology graduate programs at various institutions including Indiana University, Brown University, The University of Texas at Austin, New York University, and the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Limerick, Ireland, SOAS in London, and Wesleyan University, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, UVA, and more.
W&M in Washington: Washington & the Arts, Spring Semester 2007 and 2019, and as a Winter Seminar in January, 2022. Check our collectively authored website!
On the beach in Sidab, Oman ~January 2020
Photo by Chuck Bailey
Rock, Music, Oman
In January 2016, 2019, and 2020, Rasmussen, along with her William and Mary colleague, geologist Chuck Baily, led a study tours to Oman to learn about the the country’s fascinating nature and culture. Dubbed “Rock, Music, Oman,” you can read about that study-tour in the cover story of World Minded, the magazine of the William and Mary Reves Center for International Studies.
Rock, Music, Oman ~ Classic Edition 2016 ~ From the Reves Center for International Studies World Minded
Rock, Music, Oman -- the 2019 Edition ~ A Blog Post by Prof. Chuck Bailey
Rock, Music, Oman ~ the 2020 Edition ~ AKR
Rock, Music, Oman 2020 ~ Crescent of Learning ~ A Blog Post by Prof. Chuck Bailey
The W&M Middle Eastern Music Ensemble
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