I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who chronicles their research as it goes. I’m a total process nerd, completely obsessed with workflows and tools and the like. Websites like “How I Work” and “What’s in my Bag/Desk” are major guilty pleasures. At the same time, I often feel like I lack the time for blogging, and like I have so much on my plate that there’s not enough time to reflect. Most of my work happens frantically and under deadlines
I’m going into a sabbatical though, and I’m hoping to build up some healthy working habits, along with a more reflective practice. And, I’d like to see where my time is going and what I’m accomplishing in a tangible way. SO, I’m going to post updates here every week (optimistically…) on what I’ve been doing. I’m still thinking of this time as “pre-sabbatical,” since I’m teaching a five-week summer class that began today. Though after spending last May/June frantically prepping talks for two pandemic-delayed and newly online conferences, having only one chapter contribution hanging over me for the first half of the summer (and it’s partially based on one of those talks!) feels positively luxurious. Once summer class is over, sabbatical will truly be under way. But I still have lots to do even as the class is going on, so as usual, the boundaries are going to be blurry.
Last week was the week between the spring and summer semesters. Here’s what I accomplished:
Graded final essays and turned in grades!
Four-hour faculty retreat, my last really solid service commitment until January. Still have to wrap up some diversity committee details with my chair, but my term on the institutional assessment committee is over, and I have no faculty meetings for seven months!
Editorial board meeting for SMT-Pod, which we’re launching soon!
Finished my reviewer -and peer-suggested edits on my contribution to a group colloquy for the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, organized all the files for submission, wrote an abstract and a bio. This came out of a group panel we did at SMT 2019 in Columbus. We’ve split up the final submission tasks, so this coming week I’ll be the one putting the introduction and everybody’s essays into one big document, and sending it off to the editors by June 1 to go into production. Look for the issue in the fall!
turned around edits for my contribution to the Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory, edited by Danny Jenkins and due out from Oxford next year. This round of edits should have been the last before going into production, so hopefully there are page proofs in my near future. And Oxford Handbook chapters tend to go online as they’re completed, so maybe people will get to read this by the end of 2021.
Sketched out a short essay I’m going to send to the journal Engaging Students, related to the Video Game Music course that I’m teaching this summer. Need to write that this week and send it away, also by June 1.
Discovered that my AMS abstract was accepted. This means I’ll be giving two different talks about Amy Beach this fall, one at SMT and one at AMS. My sabbatical is meant to be devoted to writing the bulk of my first book , so spending a chunk of it working on book #2 is…extremely on brand…
This weeks goals will be to 1. get my summer class rolling, 2. pull together the JMTP submission, 3. write the Engaging Students essay, and 4. start to map out my summer writing goals for real. And 5., take a real, out-of-town Memorial Day weekend with some friends!