I am absolutely elated that after winning the Brismes Award, my dissertation has also won the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award in the Humanities. The award ceremony was held at MESA in D.C. on Sunday, 23 November, and it was wonderful to celebrate with my supervisor Dr. Walter Armbrust and old friends. Here is what the MESA judges said about my work:
Dr. Siamdoust’s “Iran’s Troubled Tunes” is a very well written and theoretically sophisticated dissertation, which bridges politics, history, culture, and ethnomusicology. The author has done a considerable amount of fieldwork in Tehran and gained access to many important musicians. Siamdoust is highly successful in blending short biographical sketches with a skillful and nuanced discussion of music and politics. More than an erudite work of scholarly excellence, it has the prospect of evolving into something that a much wider audience would find enjoyable and illuminating.
Here the links to the MESA website:
http://www.mesa.arizona.edu/awards/malcolm-kerr-dissertation.html
http://www.mesa.arizona.edu/awards/14-awards.html
The MESA Dissertation Awards were established in 1982 to recognize exceptional achievement in research and writing for/of dissertations in Middle East studies. In 1984 the award was named for Malcolm H. Kerr to honor his significant contributions to Middle East studies. Awards are given in two categories: Social Sciences and Humanities.