Musicology professor named new Erismann Faculty Fellow

This spring, the College of Music has a new Erismann Faculty Fellow. Professor of Musicology Rebecca Maloy (left, with two of her colleagues at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 2017) received the appointment, and the extra support that goes with it, effective immediately.

“I’m really deeply honored to receive this recognition from my colleagues,” Maloy says. “I hope this will help me continue to do work worthy of their support.”

The Erismann Fund for Faculty Excellence was established in 2001 by College of Music alumna Donna Erismann; it’s set aside to support research, guest artist visits and other faculty endeavors. Previous Erismann fellows included Professor Emerita of Cello Judith Glyde and Professor of Composition and Christoffersen Faculty Fellow Daniel Kellogg.

Early-Medieval music expert Maloy was nominated by Kellogg; the members of the selection committee included Dean Robert Shay, music faculty Carlo Caballero and Yonatan Malin; Department of Theatre & Dance Chair Erika Randall; and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Curriculum and Programs at the College of Media, Communication and Information Cindy White.

Maloy, who joined the College of Music faculty in 2002 and became a full professor in 2016, says the help from the fellowship will allow her to continue what she sees as the most important mission of an educator.

“We lose sight of the fact that academic institutions are all about community and exchange of ideas,” Maloy says. “I hope that this puts me in a good position to continue to create that kind of community, and to promote the best education, thinking and understanding of the past that I can as a musicologist.”

Maloy’s expertise extends beyond the walls of Imig Music Building: She’s also interim faculty director of the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies. In his nomination letter, Kellogg praised Maloy’s tireless dedication to her field. “It is hard to fathom how she manages such a productive and impressive record in each area of her life at the College of Music. Overall her record is exceptional. Faculty fellowships are created for exactly this kind of individual.”

Before her first full year as Erismann Fellow, Maloy will spend her summer immersed in several writing projects with an interdisciplinary bent, writing several book chapters directed at the general reader. She will also begin work on a new interdisciplinary project called Doctrine, Devotion, and Cultural Expression in the Cults of Medieval Iberian Saints. Supported by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK, Maloy will collaborate with scholars from the UK, Spain and the Netherlands.