June 2020: Honored to have this piece, co-authored with Shirley Ann Bowman, "Don't Even Talk to Me if You're Kinya'áanii: Adopted Clans, Kinship and Blood in Navajo Country," awarded as the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association's Prize for Most Thought-Provoking Article 2019!
From the Prize Committee:
"Kristina Jacobsen’s and Shirley Ann Bowman’s article offers an insightful view on the dynamic formation of the Diné/Navajo kinship system (k’é) through the practices of adopting and incorporating in clan formation in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, with some glances at the omnipresence of this history in present times. Moreover, this study throws light on how adoption became the terrain for multiform racial, cultural and geographical crossings in Navajo Nation building and permanence; as well as on the extent settler colonial policies on citizenship and “ancestry” historically disrupted this extraordinarily dynamic clan formation process. As a publication authored by a non-Indigenous and a Diné scholar, this article is a sample of collaborative practice and reciprocity, materialized in a well-grounded ethnographic, archival, linguistic and cultural research. In our view, this study suggests important ways to historically reflect on questions of tribal enrollment, citizenship, identity, belonging, incorporation and movement of peoples in American Indian life."
Read the article, here
From the Prize Committee:
"Kristina Jacobsen’s and Shirley Ann Bowman’s article offers an insightful view on the dynamic formation of the Diné/Navajo kinship system (k’é) through the practices of adopting and incorporating in clan formation in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, with some glances at the omnipresence of this history in present times. Moreover, this study throws light on how adoption became the terrain for multiform racial, cultural and geographical crossings in Navajo Nation building and permanence; as well as on the extent settler colonial policies on citizenship and “ancestry” historically disrupted this extraordinarily dynamic clan formation process. As a publication authored by a non-Indigenous and a Diné scholar, this article is a sample of collaborative practice and reciprocity, materialized in a well-grounded ethnographic, archival, linguistic and cultural research. In our view, this study suggests important ways to historically reflect on questions of tribal enrollment, citizenship, identity, belonging, incorporation and movement of peoples in American Indian life."
Read the article, here
Thanks to reporter Simon Romero for his recent article on Navajo country bands and for featuring "The Sound of Navajo Country"--and so many fantastic rez bands-- in the 12/01/2019 edition of The New York Times!
Navajo Country Music Pays Tribute to 'Indian Cowboys' and Outlaw Legends
SHIPROCK, N.M. - They started out from hamlets deep in the Navajo Nation, driving hours on washboard roads. When the Saturday night crowd finally arrived at Redd's, the parking lot swelled with pickup trucks. Clad in Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots, they danced under the dim lights to bands playing outlaw country classics by singers such as Waylon Jennings.
UNM professor expands research with Fulbright award
Kristina M. Jacobsen, associate professor of Ethnomusicology and Anthropology (Ethnology) at The University of New Mexico, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnomusicology. Jacobsen holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University. "This grant allows me to live in Sardinia, Italy, for one year to do ethnographic fieldwork for my next book project.
Public Talks/Presentations, Fall 2019 and Spring 2020
2/28/2020, Associazione Sas Enas, Bortigali, "Sovranitá nella Nazione Navajo: Vita
Contemporanea, Musica, e Lingua," 19.00, Biblioteca Comunale, Bortigali, Sardegna
(Italy)
2/17/2020, New York University, Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), "Songwriting as
Ethnographic Practice: Case Studies from Sardinia and the Navajo Nation"
12/05/2019, University of Pavia (Cremona, Italy), "Raccontare attraverso le canzoni: dove la
composizione di canzoni incontra la ricerca etnografica" (lecture and concert), Aula
Magna, Dipartimento di Musicologia e Beni Culturali, Università degli Studi di Pavia
Corso, Garibaldi n. 178, 26100 Cremona, 16.30. Open to the public.
11/27/2019, University of Cagliari (Cagliari, Sardinia), Formal Fulbright Research
Presentation (lecture and concert), Aula Magna, Facolta' degli Studi Umanistici,
Cagliari, 17.30-19.30. Open to the public. Presentation will be in Italian.
10/25, University of Sassari (Sassari, Sardinia), "Ethnographic Songwriting and
Collaborative Research on the Navajo Nation," guest lecture of the class, "Storia della
Musica," Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche e Sociali, Aula Joyce, via Roma 151,
Sassari.
Open to the public. Presentation will be in Italian.
12/05, University of Pavia (Cremona), "Raccontare attraverso le canzoni: dove la
composizione di canzoni incontra la ricerca etnografica," guest lecture and
performance for the lecture series "Dal Locale al Globale," Dipartimento di Musicologia
e Beni Culturali, Aula Magna, H 16.30. Open to the public. Presentation will be in
Italian.
2/28/2020, Associazione Sas Enas, Bortigali, "Sovranitá nella Nazione Navajo: Vita
Contemporanea, Musica, e Lingua," 19.00, Biblioteca Comunale, Bortigali, Sardegna
(Italy)
2/17/2020, New York University, Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), "Songwriting as
Ethnographic Practice: Case Studies from Sardinia and the Navajo Nation"
12/05/2019, University of Pavia (Cremona, Italy), "Raccontare attraverso le canzoni: dove la
composizione di canzoni incontra la ricerca etnografica" (lecture and concert), Aula
Magna, Dipartimento di Musicologia e Beni Culturali, Università degli Studi di Pavia
Corso, Garibaldi n. 178, 26100 Cremona, 16.30. Open to the public.
11/27/2019, University of Cagliari (Cagliari, Sardinia), Formal Fulbright Research
Presentation (lecture and concert), Aula Magna, Facolta' degli Studi Umanistici,
Cagliari, 17.30-19.30. Open to the public. Presentation will be in Italian.
10/25, University of Sassari (Sassari, Sardinia), "Ethnographic Songwriting and
Collaborative Research on the Navajo Nation," guest lecture of the class, "Storia della
Musica," Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche e Sociali, Aula Joyce, via Roma 151,
Sassari.
Open to the public. Presentation will be in Italian.
12/05, University of Pavia (Cremona), "Raccontare attraverso le canzoni: dove la
composizione di canzoni incontra la ricerca etnografica," guest lecture and
performance for the lecture series "Dal Locale al Globale," Dipartimento di Musicologia
e Beni Culturali, Aula Magna, H 16.30. Open to the public. Presentation will be in
Italian.
Why Navajos Love Their Country Music
When I was 17, I worked as a summer park ranger at Canyon de Chelly National Monument, a park on tribal trust land on the Navajo reservation in northeastern Arizona. One evening, my supervisor invited me to a dance.
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Download a free copy of my chapter, "Ethnographic Songwriting' or How Stories Humanize," from the new book, Arts-Based Research in Education,
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Interview with television station on The Sound of Navajo Country (2017), "Sardegna Uno," July 31 2017 (starts at 6:45)
Next Book Signing in Sardinia, Italy: August 4th 2017, Centro Servizi Culturale UNLA Oristano, "Il Giardino dei Libri," for The Sound of Navajo Country: Music, Language and Diné Belonging (2017, University of North Carolina Press; book introduction by Dr. Ignazio Macchiarella, University of Cágliari, Italy), via Carpaccio 9, Oristano
Interview with journalist Nike Gagliardi on Ethnography and Songwriting in Sardegna (Italy), July 2017
Listen to Recent Interview and Performance with musicians featured in
The Sound of Navajo Country
The Sound of Navajo Country
Kristina M. Jacobsen is an Associate Professor of Music and Anthropology (Ethnology) at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and a Faculty Affiliate in the Department of American Stuies. She co-directs the newly created Masters in Musicology at the University of New Mexico, and is also the faculty sponsor for the newly created Honky Tonk Ensemble (country music of the '60s, '70s and '80s) at UNM. Kristina earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology (2012) at Duke University, the MPhil in Ethnomusicology at Columbia University (2005) and an M.A. in Ethnomusicology at Arizona State University (2003).
Her teaching, research, and scholarship focus on music and language, anthropology of the voice, politics of authenticity, indigeneity and belonging, music of Native North America and the Appalachian mountains, race and musical genre, indigenous language revitalization and working class expressive cultures. Recent articles include “Radmilla’s Voice: Music Genre, Blood Quantum and Belonging on the Navajo Nation” (Cultural Anthropology, 2014) and “Rita(hhh): Placemaking and Country Music on the Navajo Nation” (Ethnomusicology, 2009).
Based on 2 ½ years of singing and playing with Navajo county western bands, her book, The Sound of Navajo Country: Country Music and the Politics of Language and Diné Belonging (2017), examines ideas of authenticity, nostalgia and cultural intimacy as they circulate in and through live performances of classic country music on today’s Navajo (Diné) Nation (for a brief interview about her research, watch this video by videographer Ivan Weiss).
Kristina is also an active singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. To learn more about her music, visit: kristinajacobsenmusic.com
Originally from western Massachusetts, Kristina now makes her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Curriculum Vitae
Her teaching, research, and scholarship focus on music and language, anthropology of the voice, politics of authenticity, indigeneity and belonging, music of Native North America and the Appalachian mountains, race and musical genre, indigenous language revitalization and working class expressive cultures. Recent articles include “Radmilla’s Voice: Music Genre, Blood Quantum and Belonging on the Navajo Nation” (Cultural Anthropology, 2014) and “Rita(hhh): Placemaking and Country Music on the Navajo Nation” (Ethnomusicology, 2009).
Based on 2 ½ years of singing and playing with Navajo county western bands, her book, The Sound of Navajo Country: Country Music and the Politics of Language and Diné Belonging (2017), examines ideas of authenticity, nostalgia and cultural intimacy as they circulate in and through live performances of classic country music on today’s Navajo (Diné) Nation (for a brief interview about her research, watch this video by videographer Ivan Weiss).
Kristina is also an active singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. To learn more about her music, visit: kristinajacobsenmusic.com
Originally from western Massachusetts, Kristina now makes her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Curriculum Vitae
With members of Carson Craig Sr., family, 3/25/17, Book Signing event in Albuquerque, New Mexico.