Burnim grew up in rural Teague,Texas in the 1950s and 1960s.[1][2] She attended all-Black schools and churches,where she sang gospel music. By the age of 12,Burnim was the pianist for three different church choirs in her community.[1]
Burnim was recruited to Indiana University Bloomington to complete her PhD and to found the university's African Choral Ensemble in 1976.[3] She earned her doctorate in ethnomusicology in 1980,[1] with a dissertation titled The Black Gospel Music Tradition:Symbol of Ethnicity.[4]
Career
Following her graduation,Burnim continued at Indiana University,joining the faculty of the Department of Afro-American Studies (now the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies).[3] She went on to chair the department.[3] She transferred to the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology in 1999. She served as director of the Archives of African American Music and Culture from 2014 to 2016. As of 2017,Burnim holds professor emerita status.[3]
Burnim is recognized as a pioneer and expert in the study of African American gospel music.[3][5][6] She was a "prolific"[7] researcher who published and lectured widely on the history and practice of Black religious music.[3][8][9]
Burnim co-edited two textbooks with her Indiana University colleague Portia K. Maultsby:African American Music:An Introduction (2006)[10] and Issues in African American Music:Power,Gender,Race,Representation (2016).[11] A collection of Burnim's papers and audiovisual materials can be found in the Indiana University archives.[12]
Selected works
Books
African American Music: An Introduction (co-edited with Portia K. Maultsby), 2006; ISBN9781317934431
Issues in African American Music: Power, Gender, Race, Representation (co-edited with Portia K. Maultsby), 2016; ISBN9781315472072
Journal articles
Burnim, Mellonee (1980). "Gospel music research". Black Music Research Journal. 1: 63–70. doi:10.2307/779294. JSTOR779294.
Burnim, Mellonee (1985). "Culture bearer and tradition bearer: An ethnomusicologist's research on gospel music". Ethnomusicology. 29 (3): 432–447. doi:10.2307/851798. JSTOR851798.
Book chapters
Burnim, Mellonee V.; Maultsby, Portia K. (1987). "From backwoods to city streets: The Afro-American musical journey". In Gay, Geneva; Baber, Willie L. (eds.). Expressively Black: The Cultural Basis of Ethnic Identity. Praeger. pp.109–136. ISBN0-275-92465-3. OCLC925039627.
Burnim, Mellonee (2013). "Tropes of continuity and disjuncture in the globalization of gospel music". In Dueck, Jonathan; Reily, Suzel Ana (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Music and World Christianities. pp.469–486. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199859993.013.16. ISBN9780199859993.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Maultsby, Portia; Orejuela, Fernando; Stone, Ruth. "Mellonee V. Burnim". Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. Archived from the original on 2020-06-05. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
↑ Rabaka, Reiland (2016). Civil Rights Music: The Soundtracks of the Civil Rights Movement. Lanham: Lexington Books. p.87. ISBN978-1-4985-3178-8. OCLC944086828.
↑ Hinson, Glenn (2010). Fire in My Bones Transcendence and the Holy Spirit in African American Gospel. University of Pennsylvania Press. p.341. ISBN978-0-8122-0301-1. OCLC956784829.
↑ Burford, Mark (2019). Mahalia Jackson and the black gospel field. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p.15. ISBN978-0-19-063490-2. OCLC1022984433.
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