THE HEWITT-OBERDOERFFER AWARD

CALL FOR PAPERS: THE HEWITT-OBERDOERFFER AWARD
for a student member of the American Musicological Society, Southwest Chapter

The Southwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society annually holds a competition for the Hewitt-Oberdoerffer Award for best student paper. The Award includes a cash prize of $100 and the opportunity to present the paper at the annual Spring Chapter meeting. Named in honor of two distinguished scholars of the AMS Southwest Chapter, Dr. Helen Hewitt and Dr. Fritz Oberdoerffer, the award is intended to encourage student members of the Chapter to present their music research in a regional forum. Students who are current, paid members of the Southwest Chapter, who are residing in Arkansas, Oklahoma, or Texas, and are members of the AMS are eligible to apply. Submissions are currently closed and will open after the spring meeting.

Guidelines for Submission

  1. Submissions will be judged as papers to be read at a Chapter meeting rather than as articles to be published. Submissions should accordingly observe a 20-minute length adopted for presentations at regional meetings of the AMS-SW. Pertinent scholarly apparatus, while not the prime consideration in evaluating submissions, should nevertheless be in evidence.
  2. Students will submit their papers, with all ancillary materials (title, abstract of the paper, relevant handouts, tables, illustrations, musical examples, etc.) via e-mail as a single Microsoft Word document. Abstracts are limited to 500 words and should represent the paper as fully as possible, articulate and substantiate major aspects of the paper’s argument and research findings, point out the paper’s novelty (and its relation to previous work), and indicate the paper’s significance for the scholarly community.
  3. The Hewitt-Oberdoerffer Award Committee will make its final decision and inform the Chapter President in advance of the annual Fall meeting. The Committee will inform submitters of the results and the President will invite the winner to present the paper at the Chapter’s spring meeting. The prize money will be awarded during the relevant business meeting.
  4. To maximize the competition’s pedagogical value, selection committee members will submit evaluations of all papers to the chair, who will combine them and share them with the students. Thus, students will gain feedback from faculty other than their own.

Current Recipient:

The Winner of the 2022-23 Hewitt-Oberdoerffer Award is Andrea Klassen (UT Austin) “The Context and Performance of Anomalous Neumes in the Musical Manuscripts of Hildegard of Bingen”

Past Winners:

  • 2021: Hannah Neuhauser, The University of Texas at Austin
  • 2020: Sa Ra Park, Texas State University
  • 2019: Jacob Collins, Texas Christian University
  • 2018: Peng Liu, The University of Texas at Austin
  • 2014: Robert Michael Anderson, University of North Texas
  • 2013: Eve Ruotsinoja, University of Houston
  • 2012: Jonathan Sauceda, University of North Texas
  • 2010: Megan Varvir Coe, University of North Texas
  • 2009: Gail O’Brien, University of Houston