Wiley Housewright Dissertation Award
The Wiley Housewright Dissertation Award is designed to recognize a single dissertation on American music for its exceptional depth, clarity, significance, and overall contribution to the field. "American" is understood here to embrace all of North America, including Central America and the Caribbean, and aspects of its cultures elsewhere in the world.
Dissertations from American Studies, American history, and other fields beyond theory, musicology, and ethnomusicology are welcome as long as the primary focus of the work is a musical topic.
This award consists of a plaque and cash award presented at the National Conference in the Spring.
Past Winners of the Housewright Dissertation Award
| Diss. Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 1995 | David Patterson, "Appraising the Catchwords, c. 1942-1959: John Cage's Asian- Derived Rhetoric and the Historic Reference of Black Mountain College" |
| 1997 | Jennifer L. DeLapp, "Copland in the Fifties: Music and Ideology in the McCarthy Era" |
| 1998 | David Ake, "Being Jazz: Identities and Images" |
| 1999 | Amy C. Beal, "Patronage and Reception History of American Experimental Music in West Germany, 1945-1986" |
| 2000 | Sandra J. Graham, "The Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Concert Spiritual: the Beginnings of an American Tradition" |
| 2001 | Elyse Carter Vosen, "Seventh-Fire Children: Gender, Embodiment, and Musical Performances of Decolonization by Anishinaabe Youth" |
| 2002 | Mark Clague, "Chicago Counterpoint: The Auditorium" |
| 2003 | Mark J. Butler, "Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music" |
| 2004 | Charles Hiroshi Garrett, "Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music in the Twentieth Century" |
| 2005 | Jeremy Grimshaw, "Music of a 'More Exalted Sphere': Compositional Practice, Biography, and Cosmology in the Music of La Monte Young" |
| 2006 | Drew Davies, "The Italianized Frontier: Music at Durango Cathedral, Español Culture, and Aesthetics of Devotion in Eighteenth-Century New Spain" |
| 2007 | Ayden Adler, "Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music": Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, 1930-1950." |
| 2008 | Jonathan Greenberg, "Singing Up Close: Voice, Language, and Race in American Popular Music, 1925–1935" |
| 2009 | Katherine Leigh Axtell, "Maiden Voyage: The Genesis and Reception of Show Boat, 1926-1932" |
Note: For years not listed, no award was given.