Sheryl started following the work of Rebecca Marchand, The Boston Conservatory, Music History.
Sheryl started following the work of Glenda Goodman, Harvard University, Music.
Sheryl started following the work of Emily Ansari, The University of Western Ontario, Music.
Postdoctoral Teaching Assistant, Music
Thesis Title: As We Raise Our Voices: A Social History and Ethnography of "God Bless America," 1918–2010
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Kay Kaufman Shelemay
Carol J. Oja |
About
Sheryl Kaskowitz received her Ph.D. in music (with an ethnomusicology focus) from Harvard University in 2011. Her research interests focus on popular, vernacular, and participatory music-making within the United States, in both contemporary and historical practice.
The book manuscript based on her dissertation, which is now under contract with Oxford University Press, presents a social history and ethnography of the song “God Bless America.” Beginning with a study of the song’s sudden popularity in the wake of the September 11th attacks, it then traces the song’s origins and examines the song’s shifting meanings and uses over time, tracing a rightward ideological trajectory from an early association with religious and ethnic tolerance to an increasing use as a conservative anthem. It ends with an ethnographic exploration of the new role of “God Bless America” within professional baseball, where the song has become a regular part of the game’s ritualized pageantry since 9/11.
Tracing the song’s history reveals complex layers of meaning, acting as a lens to illuminate larger cultural shifts within American culture in the twentieth century. In addition, “God Bless America” serves as a case study for a broader exploration of the role of communal singing in American public life, embodying at various points the five principal functions of group singing that this book identifies: entertainment, allegiance, protest, commemoration, and coercion.
