I am happy to announce that Jared Holton, a doctoral candidate at UC Santa Barbara, has accepted the nomination for the next chair-elect position.

Jared’s position will change to “chair” upon the election of a new chair-elect, following our next meeting at SEM in Atlanta, Georgia, in October. I have included below a short bio of Jared. For more information about Jared, you may also go to this link: https://music.ucsb.edu/people/jared-holton. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Beau Bothwell our past chair for his leadership and for his continued efforts on behalf of SAMR and its members.

Jared Holton is a doctoral candidate and Chancellor’s fellow in Ethnomusicology with an interdisciplinary emphasis in Global Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. He has undergraduate and graduate degrees in piano performance, intercultural studies, and music education, with over eight years of experience teaching private and classroom-based music curricula. Jared started graduate studies in music after five years of teaching music in Western Libya within several institutions, namely the University of Tripoli. Supported by the Center for Middle East Studies at UCSB and also by the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, his current research investigates cultural movement through an analysis of how Tunisians transmit, circulate, and socially imprint the tubu‘, the musical modes that are said to originate from al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). Jared is honored to accept the co-chair position of SAMR, and looks forward to working with Guilnard and the members to strengthen the SAMR network internationally and to support the richness and diversity of current studies in Arab musics.

On another note, as 2021 gets underway, I invite you to consider submitting your abstract for paper, panel, or special event for sponsorship by the Society for Arab Music Research for the upcoming Society for Ethnomusicology conference in Atlanta, Georgia. This event will be held between 28 and 31 October 2021. I will send out relevant details and deadlines in the next few days.

Until then, Congratulations and welcome again to Jared.

Best wishes, Guilnard