Ellie Hisama, Professor Emerita of Music and Dean of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, was awarded the Edward T. Cone Membership in music studies at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) for the Fall 2024 term. This prestigious membership allows for focused research and the free and open exchange of ideas among an international community of scholars at one of the foremost centers for intellectual inquiry. Visiting scholars are selected through a highly competitive process for their bold ideas, innovative methods, and deep research questions by the permanent Faculty. Past IAS Faculty include Albert Einstein, Erwin Panofsky, Hetty Goldman, and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
At the IAS, Hisama will work on a book provisionally titled The Fragment and the Long Song of Julius Eastman. Continuing her work in social and cultural history, Hisama’s project on the polymath musician Julius Eastman addresses his fractured archive and language of ecstatic minimalism. It offers pathways of listening to Eastman’s uncompromising musical engagements and serves as an example of Hisama’s ongoing commitment to public humanities.