Chair's Assistant

Department Summary

Ethnomusicology involves the study of all kinds of music from all over the world, using a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The Department of Ethnomusicology, the largest and first of its kind in a U.S. university, offers courses that cover the music of virtually every region of the world, many ethnic groups in the U.S., as well as courses on popular music and film music.

Most courses combine an interest in music as an art form and questions how musical art and practice relate to other aspects of culture, society, politics, and economics. Courses are given on philosophy and aesthetics of music. In addition to lecture courses, the department offers performance ensemble courses in several world and American music traditions. The department is aligned with the departments of Music Performance, Education, and Composition, and Musicology and aspires to promote productive collaboration between performance and scholarship, a cross‑cultural global understanding of the art of music, and preparatory training for a broad range of careers in music after students graduate.

In the best liberal arts tradition, you will enjoy interdisciplinary contact from the departments of ethnomusicology, musicology and music industry at the School of Music and UCLA’s other arts and humanities departments. We are committed to giving students the best academic and musical preparation, all while taking advantage of the many performance opportunities on campus and in Los Angeles.

Under the general supervision of the Manager of Ethnomusicology, Musicology and Global Jazz Studies IDP and the Chair of the Department of Ethnomusicology, the incumbent will provide high‑level administrative support for the Chair and Core Faculty program areas. Major duties include managing course scheduling and catalog updates, comprehensive calendaring of chairs' activities and departmental events, interfacing with students, faculty, artists, senior university officials, scheduling, and agendas of official meetings of the Core Faculty and Affiliated Faculty, assisting with the development and implementation of long‑range planning, and serving as the Department liaison for general inquiries.

The incumbent will also manage the coordination and process necessary for reimbursements and payments for departmental events throughout the year, including conferences, concerts, capstone events, masterclasses, summer intensives, guest artists, and residencies. Coordination includes booking travel, entertainment details, collaborating directly with vendors and participants, etc. They will also manage the editing of reports and distribution of electronic communications to students and faculty.

Additional duties include the ongoing maintenance of the standard operating procedure manual (independently ensuring that all policies are up to date and accurately reflected), managing faculty onboarding training materials, providing support for faculty recruitment and advancement, and maintaining and updating departmental websites and other public‑facing media. They will also assist with special projects as needed.

• UCLA provides a full pay range. Actual salary offers consider factors such as budget, prior experience, skills, knowledge, abilities, education, licensure and certifications, and other business considerations. Salary offers at the top of the range are not common. Visit the UC Benefit package to discover benefits that start on day one, and use the UC Total Compensation Estimator to calculate the total compensation value with benefits.

• Excellent oral, reading comprehension, and written communication skills, including but not limited to logical, concise, and grammatically correct correspondence and interpretation of documents, with the ability to explain complex policies and procedures at various organizational levels. (Required)
• Skill in balancing multiple priorities and the flexibility to work with changing priorities and constant interruptions without sacrificing quality and accuracy. (Required)
• Skill in independently and successfully analyzing data and information, problems, situations,…