Community News

Andrew Cashner awarded NEH fellowships

With the assistance of Bill Crouse, Sr., he plans to complete his digital humanities project “Earth Songs of the Seneca Nation”

Bill Crouse, Sr.

March 1, 2023 | rochester.edu

Andrew Cashner

Andrew Cashner, an assistant professor in the Arthur Satz Department of Music, won a $60,000 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

Cashner will use the NEH-Mellon fellowship for digital publication to complete his digital humanities project “Earth Songs of the Seneca Nation,” which will include a website and book about the traditional social dance songs of the Onondowa’ga:’ people. He will collaborate with Bill Crouse Sr., a renowned Seneca singer and faith keeper, to explore traditional Seneca music and how the Seneca people have used these songs to preserve their connections to their ancestral land, history, and identity as Haudenosaunee people.

The website, SenecaSongs.earth, will feature video and audio recordings of the Seneca Nation’s Earth Songs together with interviews and research into the history of the songs, how they have been passed on through oral tradition, and how they continue to be adapted in the face of change. The site will also provide trustworthy and ethically sensitive information about indigenous music and the Seneca people.