Professor: Gayle Wald
Department: American Studies
Title: Children’s Musician-Educator Ella Jenkins
Description: I am researching and writing about Ella Jenkins, the most
important children’s musician of the 20th century. At 95, Jenkins has
released more than 40 albums on the independent Folkways record label. She
has won a Grammy and been deemed a “national treasure” and the “first lady of
children’s music.” Jenkins wrote liner notes (written texts) to go along with
every one of her albums. They are a rich literary archive of her thinking as
an African American woman whose career was shaped by civil rights and
anti-fascism. I am looking for someone to collect all of these texts and
perform a content analysis of them.
Duties: The RA will collect Jenkins’s digitized liner notes (written texts
that accompanied each of her albums) and perform a content analysis of them.
What are the themes that run through these texts? What turns up as quirky or
unusual? How does Jenkins tell a story about herself in these texts? How do
her themes change over time?
If you are interested in US cultural history and woman’s and African American
history, this will be a fun project. This is a project that will allow you to
use skills in literary/ textual /cultural analysis.
Time commitment: 1-3 hours per week (average)
Credit hour option*: 1
Submit Cover Letter/Resume to: gwald@gwu.edu
*If credit is sought, all registration deadlines and requirements must be
met. Students selected to be research assistants should contact Brianna
Crayton (bcrayton@gwu.edu) whether they intend to pursue credit or not.
