AMIS is pleased to announce that Jennifer Kyker is the 2023 recipient of the Frances Densmore Prize.
The 2023 Frances Densmore Prize is awarded toJennifer Kyker for an article titled "Music under the Ground: Ethnomusicological Research on the Ground-Bow in Africa," published in 2021 in the journalEthnomusicology, vol. 65, no. 2. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Zimbabwe, Kyker’s article demonstrates how the categorization of musical instruments continues to be a complex and sometimes ambiguous practice, notwithstanding the intended rigor of the various taxonomic systems we employ to aid such categorization. Kyker also uses the instrument to critique certain aspects of our scholarly activities, such as the general lack of attention paid to instruments associated with children’s music-making or the geographical bias that frequently pertains to the concept of "ethnomusicology at home." The Densmore committee felt this to be a rich and persuasive article, the importance of which goes well beyond the specifics of the instrument on which it is based or the locales in which the ground-bow is found.