I have had extensive experience teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses, including variations of Introduction to World Music, Introduction to Popular Music, Music Appreciation, Introduction to Music History, American Music History, Music Research Methods, Caribbean Music, and the Musicology of Childhood. These courses have been structured as introductory survey courses, upper-division musicology courses, and graduate seminars. I have experience teaching various class sizes from three-person seminars to 280-person lectures, as well as familiarity with teaching both synchronous and asynchronous remote/hybrid courses. Across these teaching experiences, I have navigated changing understandings of pedagogy in higher education and in the field of musicology and look to continue to make informed decisions that best serve students for successful musical lives and careers.
I have experience mentoring undergraduate and graduate students including serving as a capstone advisor, a teaching mentor, and a member of comprehensive exam committees. My students’ research projects have covered a variety of topics including, but not limited to, Caribbean muiscs, musics of the African diaspora, youth muiscking, and community music.
As an instructor, I challenge students to expand their individual academic and musical backgrounds to critically process course themes and extend course concepts to their unique lives and goals. I frequently incorporate community events and concerts into my curricula to connect students to their local communities. I also look to encourage creativity and cross-disciplinary thinking in my courses by re-examining the ways that we learn and write about music, culture, and history. Further, I seek to prioritize student-driven scholarship and collaborative initiatives by creating syllabi that foster student engagement in every level of the course. At the core of my personal teaching philosophy is the importance of inclusion in the classroom. With inclusion comes new knowledge and new understandings of learning, as such, my teaching philosophy and course design allow for the development of new perspectives from a wide range of individuals in my classroom and across the university.
Sample Course Descriptions
Music of the Caribbean
Music of the Caribbean is a seminar course that reconceptualizes student’s musical understandings of the Caribbean. Rather than approaching the region by the individual islands within, this course will approach Caribbean music through thematic topics. The course will analyze Caribbean understandings of colonialism, political resistance, cultural heritage, environmentalism, tourism, and the development of ethnic/racial, class, gendered, and national identities. By the end of this course, students will be able to critical assess similarities and differences of the musical cultures from across the region.
Music and Childhood
Childhood Studies and Music is a seminar course that will delve into the intersection of ethnomusicology and childhood/youth studies. The course will cover historical approaches to children’s research, contemporary approaches to children’s research, perceptions of children’s musical lives, children’s identity development, influences on children’s music, and children’s agency and consciousness. Through the semester, we will read various case studies from a multitude of cultures to explore the role of music in children’s identity development and the various influences within children’s musical lives, as well as question the ways that children’s music has contributed to larger cultural movements and recognize the power of children in contemporary society. By the end of the course, students will be able to think critically on the role children play within musical cultures, and will be encouraged to consider the role of youth and children within their own research interests.
Music in a Diasporic America
Music in Diasporic America is a course that highlights the variety of individuals and communities who constitute the historical and contemporary American soundscape. With an emphasis on the migration of musical traditions, we will investigate “American music” as a diverse, dynamic, and inclusive set of musical traditions and practices. Through the semester we will explore various case studies of diasporic communities musicking in the United States. By the end of this course, you will be able to write and think critically about how musical practices construct, reflect, and challenge cultural identities, as well as how music continues to play a role in the construction of American conceptions of nationalism, ethnicity, multiculturalism, and diversity.
Music, Culture, & Technology in Children’s Lives
This course will cover the intersection of technology and children’s/youth’s musical lives. Throughout the course, we will examine the development of physical technology, visual/audio technology, and the internet, considering the ways in which children/youth across time and place have engaged in the technological developments of musical cultures. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand a basic history of technological developments and to critically interpret the role of technology in children’s/youth’s musical lives and their musical development.
