Linda Smith (Ph.D. student, sociocultural anthropology).  In her fourth year of the doctoral program, Linda is preparing her dissertation prospectus, proposal, and bibliography in anticipation of taking candidacy exams by the end of 2006. 

This past academic year brought the chance to work in a variety of settings.  Linda presented her individually volunteered paper entitled “The Effect of Soundtracks on the Interpretation of Documentary Films” at the 2004 AAA Meetings in Atlanta, Georgia.  Additionally, Linda’s museum exhibit entitled “Words, Wood, and Wire: The History of Southern Illinois As Told Through Folk Songs and Musical Instruments,” shown in the SIUC University Museum during the Fall 2004 semester, has won a 2005 Award of Excellence from the Illinois Association of Museums.  Finally, Linda recently co-edited, along with fellow Ph.D. student Michael Hernandez, the publication entitled Behind the Masks, a companion catalog to Michael’s exhibit of the same name currently showing in the SIUC University Museum.

Linda continues as the Editorial Assistant for Dr. Jonathan Hill for the journal Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power again this academic year.  Additionally, Linda is working with Dr. Clark Halker of the Illinois Humanities Council on the Illinois Music Heritage Project, which will produce a database of the location and content of folk and ethnic music repositories across the state, as well as a series of CDs that will include archival and contemporary recordings of Illinois musicians.  Finally, in her ‘spare’ time Linda is still volunteering at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee, helping copyedit oral histories.