The American Musicological Society (AMS), a 91-year-old knowledge society committed to the study of music, history, and culture, received notice from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), that all four of the American Musicological Society’s active NEH grants had been terminated, effective 1 April 2025. These grants were expected to account for more than $363,000 in AMS income over the next two years.
It looks like the AMS was too much involved in diversity, equality and occlusion, so everything deeply hated by the fascist American Führer. The money would have been used to support the following programs and projects:
Many Musics of America – A landmark event series that spotlights the richness and diversity of America’s musical traditions 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Music of the United States of America (MUSA) – A series, begun in the 1980s, of more than forty scholarly editions featuring American musical works of exceptional artistic quality and historical significance.
Musics of the United States: Telling Our Stories – A two-week residential Institute for higher education faculty focused on updating the stories we teach about American music by incorporating new humanities research.
Music Means: A Digital Platform for Exploring Music and Meaning in America
The AMS says: « Moreover, recent press reports have warned that further cuts in staff and funding are coming for the NEH — that as much as 80 percent of the staff of that roughly 180-person agency will be fired. If true, this means that not only current funding, but all pending and future grant awards are imperiled. (The AMS has several pending grant proposals under consideration by the NEH for a total of $1.35 million dollars, and in recent years has received at least 10% to 15% of its total annual funding from such grants.)
The Executive Director of the AMS, Siovahn Walker, wrote a public letter in which she says: « As a professional historian, I am deeply distressed by the likely effects of these cuts. I can think of few other times in modern history when the people of the United States have needed the humanities more; when we have needed to reflect on history and the complexity of the human condition more than at this moment. »
