Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, professor of ethnomusicology in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, was honored by students and colleagues at “Resiliency and Distinction: An Inspired Professor’s Yield — Students Who Think Deeply.” The conference, held at Azusa Pacific University, celebrated DjeDje for continually inspiring her doctoral students and colleagues throughout her career at UCLA.
The tribute to DjeDje took place during the Azusa Pacific's annual “Common Day of Learning.”The event’s highlight was the presentation of a Festschrift to DjeDje, edited by her former students Kimasi Browne and Jean Kidula. Several other Festschrift contributors were present.
The Festschrift "embraces a diversity of recent ethnographies that intersect geographically and topically with DjeDje’s research interests," according to the document. Topics included traditional and popular African music, Caribbean music and African-American gospel music, with essays ranging from such subjects as indigenous African lithophone music to 20th-century African-American gospel and 21st-century African hip-hop music.
The Festschrift also includes a forward by J.H. Kwabena Nketia, a Ghanaian ethnomusicologist and composer, considered Africa's premier musicologist; a preface by Akin Euba, a Nigerian composer, musicologist and pianist; and testimonials and essays by DjeDje’s colleagues and students.
