Phi Beta Kappa Delta of Maine chapter welcomes visiting scholar Tammy Kernodle as keynote speaker for 102nd class initiation
The Phi Beta Kappa Delta of Maine chapter will initiate its 102nd class on March 10 at 4 PM at the Buchanan Alumni House. The ceremony – which is open to the public – will feature a keynote talk from Professor Tammy L. Kernodle, University Distinguished Professor of Music at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Kernodle’s talk is titled “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine: Black Women and the Hidden Sonic Narratives of Rock History” and will delve into the many ways in which the creative work of Black women shaped the path of rock music through American popular culture.
Professor Kernodle is an internationally recognized musician and scholar whose research focuses on African American music, gender studies in music, and race in American popular culture. She is the author of the biography Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams, which chronicles the six-decade career of jazz pianist/arranger and educator Mary Lou Williams. She served as Associate Editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of African American Music and on the Editorial Board for the revision of the New Grove Encyclopedia of American Music. Her scholarship has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and she has appeared in numerous award-winning documentaries including Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band, Girls in the Band, and Miles Davis: The Birth of Cool.
Timothy Cole, Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and president of the Delta of Maine chapter, noted that “We’re very pleased to be able to host Professor Kernodle. She is an internationally recognized musician and scholar. Faculty and students from a number of programs on campus, such as the School of Performing Arts, Philosophy, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and the Honors College (among others) are excited about her visit.”
Founded at William & Mary in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is one of the country’s most prestigious academic honor societies. Approximately 10% of the colleges and universities in the country host chapters, with PBK adding new ones on a triennial basis. At present, there are 293 schools on that prestigious list.
Membership is extremely selective within those chapters as well, with just the top 10% of a school’s liberal arts and sciences juniors and seniors qualifying for selection. Those chosen will join a list of more than half-a-million fellow PBK members as part of one of the country’s oldest and most venerated academic cohorts.
The Delta Maine chapter is the only public university chapter in the state and one of the 100 oldest in the entire Phi Beta Kappa organization. To reach this level of longevity requires a generational commitment; UMaine’s students, staff and faculty have spent a century rising to the challenge inherent to that commitment.