Dr Joanne Cusack was awarded the Harry White Doctoral Prize of the Society for Musicology in Ireland at a ceremony held as part of the SMI/ICTMD Postgraduate Conference in Dublin on 16 January. In the historic surroundings of the Organ Room of the Royal Irish Academy, SMI President Professor Wolfgang Marx (UCD) and Professor Harry White (UCD) presented Dr Cusack with the prize's medal. In his congratulatory speech, Professor Marx noted the excellence of all ten dissertations entered for the award, and delivered the citation for Dr Cusack's work. The comments of the judges Dr Anja Bunzel and Dr Dillon Parmer noted that:
"One dissertation stood out amongst these, Dr Joanne Cusack’s “Changes in Society and Scene: An Examination of Women in Irish Traditional Music” from Maynooth University. This study explores women's roles in the commercial Irish traditional music scene and offers original insights into a thus far unexamined phenomenon and combines historical- and theory-based research with an ethnographic strand. The approach results in an excellent balance between a survey-like overview of the current situation and specific experiment-based case studies. We appreciate the author's clarity as regards aims, limitations, and conclusions, and we acknowledge her well-levelled self-reflection. Already starting with the title, the dissertation is written creatively, and reading it was an absolute pleasure. The thesis is an excellent scholarly work in and of itself, but we were impressed by the author's methodological prudence in relation to public outreach and impact: she provides clear suggestions for improving policy making through conversations with politicians, educators, and members of the (non-academic) public. Some of these conversations were started by the author during her doctoral studies already. While we did not evaluate the dissertations on their potential to invite such dialogue, we take note of Dr Cusack's practical approach, and we are certain that its positive impact is reciprocal. The very nature of scholarship suggests that dialogue between academia and members of the general public helps to formulate clear (and answerable) research questions, and a critical discussion and reflection of research projects may influence processes in the world outside of academia positively. We, therefore, are pleased to award this dissertation the Harry White Doctoral Prize 2025."
The Music Department congratulates Dr Joanne Cusack for her achievements, and wishes her all the best for her forthcoming book arising out of her PhD Studies.
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The Harry White Doctoral Prize of the Society for Musicology in Ireland was inaugurated in 2020 as a tribute to Professor White’s work in founding the society, his extraordinary service as its inaugural President (2003–2006) and as council member in subsequent years to 2021. The prize is awarded biennially by the SMI for a distinguished doctoral dissertation on any musicological topic submitted within the two most recent academic years as part of a doctoral degree at an institution in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. The winning thesis is selected by a prize committee and submitted to SMI Council for award at the annual SMI Postgraduate Conference.