New IASA Research Grant Award

I am delighted to announce that the latest IASA Research Grant has been awarded to Christian Poske of the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. His research project concerns cylinder recordings made by anthropologist John Henry Hutton (1885-1968) in Nagaland in India between 1914-16. The recordings, made in different locations in the Assam province, include ritual songs, work songs, and other pieces performed by five ethnic groups on Nagaland. This includes the Chang, Sangtam, Sumi (Sema), Angami, and Lhota peoples. The recordings were eventually migrated to digital format by the British Library Sound Archive. Today, the cylinders and digital copies of the recordings are held by the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England.

The research project aims to gather information and context for the cylinder recordings, based on related archival materials. Also, Christian will conduct fieldwork at identified locations to evaluate relevance of the recordings to the contemporary Naga communities. The information gathered will lead to metadata enhancements that would be beneficial to the collection, and a reconnection of these recordings to their place of origin, Nagaland.    

Please join the IASA Executive Board and community in congratulating Christian on this grant award. And if you are a IASA member, please consider applying for a IASA Research Grant. The requirements for the Grant are here.  

On behalf of the IASA Executive Board,

Tre Berney

President