Lily Talmers (BA Comp Lit 2020) has won the 2019-2020 Maize Multi-Term Global Research Award for her Honors Thesis, "Gendered Readings of Urban Folk Music: The Cases of Rembetika and Fado," advised by Artemis Leontis."
Talmers combined a personal love for folk music and studies in Greek and Portugeuse to create a distinctly unique and creative honors thesis. Thesis advisor Artemis Leontis, Professor of Modern Greek and Comparative Literature and Chair of Classical Studies, supports the strength of Talmer’s work, pointing out the research as 'much more advanced because it involved finding and studying written sources on musician traditions lasting more than 100 years in two foreign languages.' Talmer tackled these difficulties with determined perseverance, scouring bookstores for source material while studying abroad in Greece, and utilizing the help of subject librarians Barbara Alvarez (Comparative Literature) and Meredith Kahn (Gender and Sexuality Studies).
"One unique aspect of this work was the creative research and thinking needed for lyrical analyses in the urban folk music traditions of Greek rembetika and Portugeuse fado. Talmers combined this lyrical analysis with the study of classic theoretical texts on gender, sexuality, and cultural studies to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of these two musical traditions, while focusing on analysis through a gender lens. Also unique to the creation of Talmers’s thesis was the balance between incorporating subjective, personal experience into the work and an objective, theoretically-informed analysis. These approaches came together to create both an interesting and enjoyable thesis paper."
Congratulations Lily!
