George Lankford, professor emeritus of social science at Lyon College, Batesville, Ark., Wednesday (Nov. 11) will present his take on an enthno-astronomy view of how American Indian peoples understood the universe with his free, public presentation, "Footprints in the Stars," a 2009 IU College of Arts and Sciences "Evolution, Diversity and Change" Themester event.

As part of an Indiana University conference on black experiences in rock music, the producer of the Tony Award-winning musical Passing Strange will speak after a screening of a filmed version of the production.

As part of an Indiana University conference on black experiences in rock music, James Spooner, the producer of the award-winning film Afro-Punk, will speak after a screening of his documentary.

A professor and an alumnus of Indiana University's Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology have been selected to share one of the most venerated awards in their field, the Chicago Folklore Prize.

An academic conference Nov. 13-14 at IU Bloomington, "Reclaiming the Right to Rock: Black Experiences in Rock Music," brings together black rock musicians from different generations and regions with music critics and scholars to discuss the socio-political history, musical developments and the future of the genre.

Pravina Shukla, an associate professor of folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University, has been awarded the 2009 Millia Davenport Publication Award given by the Costume Society of America for her book The Grace of Four Moons: Dress, Adornment, and the Art of the Body in Modern India (2008, Indiana University Press).

Tributes continue to celebrate the life of pop star and musical icon Michael Jackson, who died last week (June 25) at the age of 50. Three Indiana University experts on popular music are available to discuss the Indiana native's life and musical legacy. Glenn Gass is a professor at IU's Jacobs School of Music and author of the first for-credit course at any music school or conservatory on the history of rock 'n' roll. Portia Maultsby is a professor in IU's Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and director of the Archives of African American Music and Culture. Charles Sykes, director of IU's African American Arts Institute and an adjunct professor of folklore and ethnomusicology, developed the first for-credit college course on the Motown Record Corp.

Millions of people worldwide are mourning Thursday's (June 25) death of pop star and musical icon Michael Jackson at the age of 50. An IU expert on popular music is available to discuss the Indiana native's life and musical legacy.

The Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music has been awarded a third grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, valued at $347,682, to continue its collaborative research and development project that will digitally preserve critically endangered sound recordings.

An Indiana University professor was closely involved with planning and development for "Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy," a groundbreaking, two-week festival at Carnegie Hall celebrating African American culture. The festival, which began March 4 and runs through March 23, was conceptualized and curated by renowned soprano Jessye Norman.

Indiana University's Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC), which houses one of the largest scholastic repositories devoted to black music and expression, is using a new exhibit to take its show out on the road.

An IU professor's new book documents the important clothing decisions made by ordinary people in India and how they contribute to a high level of non-verbal communication in that vibrant society.

Indiana University folklore professor Richard Bauman has studied the acts of speaking and of silence as communicative modes among 16th century Quakers and Medieval Icelanders. He's also taken a keen ear to coon dog traders in East Texas and researching practical jokesters. Bauman recently was presented with the Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award by the American Folklore Society.

A Grammy Foundation grant to IU's Archives of African American Music and Culture will enable it to digitally preserve and make accessible nearly 300 hours of interviews with rhythm and blues pioneers.

More than 200 experts who study indigenous languages spoken in Latin America will come to Indiana University's Bloomington campus today (August 14) through Saturday for the first biennial Symposium on Teaching Indigenous Languages of Latin America or STILLA.

Music archives and libraries around the country are using new standards developed at Indiana University to digitally preserve endangered sound recordings.

IU Bloomington Libraries are publishing their first faculty-generated electronic journal, Museum Anthropology Review, which is dedicated to museum and material culture studies.

The Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music (ATM) and the Archive of World Music at Harvard University have been awarded a $349,910 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue their collaborative research and development project that will digital preserve critically endangered sound recordings.

Traditional Arts Indiana -- a partnership between Indiana University's Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and the Indiana Arts Commission -- was honored with a resolution passed by the Indiana General Assembly.

Richard Bauman, distinguished professor of folklore and chair of the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University Bloomington, has been awarded the 2006 Edward Sapir Book Prize for his co-authored work Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality.

Two words in Hebrew -- "Hoo" and "Shir" -- come together to phonetically sound like Indiana University's and the state's treasured nickname, "Hoosier." Appropriately, for a group of IU students who will sing later this month at the White House, the words also mean, "it is a song."

A research team from Indiana University and the University of Michigan has received a $850,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to begin the implementation phase of a searchable online digital video archive that they have been developing since 2001.

The Indiana State Fair and Traditional Arts Indiana -- a partnership of Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and the Indiana Arts Commission -- are accepting entries for the Traditional Arts Indiana State Fair Fiddle Contest. The competition, featuring some of Indiana's finest fiddlers, will take place on Saturday, Aug. 12 on the WFMS Free Stage at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis.

Throughout his career, IUB Professor Henry Glassie has studied the cultures of traditional communities around the world. In his new book, The Stars of Ballymenone, Glassie decided to focus on the people in an impoverished Northern Irish community who "put pricks of brightness into the midst of that dark, stormy background."