Resources for Diversifying Music Theory Pedagogy

The following resources provide ideas and materials for racial and ethnic diversity in music theory classrooms.

 

Broader themes and philosophies

Adams, Maurianne. 1992. “Cultural inclusion in the American college classroom.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 49. 

Brookfield, Stephen D., and Stephen Preskill. 2012. Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms. John Wiley & Sons.

Giroux, Henry. 2003. “Spectacles of Race and Pedagogies of Denial: Anti-Black Racist Pedagogy Under the Reign of Neoliberalism.” Communication Education 52.

Guo, Shibao, and Zenobia Jamal. 2007. “Nurturing Cultural Diversity in Higher Education: A Critical Review of Selected Models.” The Canadian Journal of Higher Education; Toronto 37, No. 3. 

Hatch, Christopher, and David W. Bernstein, eds. Music Theory and the Exploration of the Past. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1993.

Hisama, Ellie. 2018. “Considering Race and Ethnicity in the Music Theory Classroom,” in Norton Guide to Teaching Music Theory, edited by Rachel Lumsden and Jeffrey Swinkin, 252-66.  New York: W. W. Norton.

Hurtado, Sylvia. 2001. “Linking Diversity and Educational Purpose: How Diversity Affects the Classroom Environment and Student Development.” In Diversity Challenged: Evidence on the Impact of Affirmative Action, edited by Gary Orfield, 187–203. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press

Kang, YouYoung. 2006. “Defending Music Theory in a Multicultural Curriculum.” College Music Symposium 46.

Leifer, Valia. 2017. “Music Department to Adopt New Curriculum Beginning Fall 2017.” The
Harvard Crimson. March 22.

Maus, Fred Everett. 2004. “Ethnomusicology, Music Curricula, and the Centrality of Classical Music.” College Music Symposium 44.

Milem, Jeffrey F. 2001. “Increasing Diversity Benefits: How Campus Climate and Teaching Methods Affect Student Outcomes.” In Diversity Challenged: Evidence on the Impact of Affirmative Action, edited by Gary Orfield, 233–49. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Molk, Dave and Michelle Ohnona. 2020. “Promoting Equity: Developing an Antiracist Music Theory Classroom.”

Molk, Dave. 2019. “Teaching Inequality: Consequences of Traditional Music Theory Pedagogy.”

Nelson, Richard. 2002. “The College Music Society Music Theory Undergraduate Core Curriculum Survey – 2000.” College Music Symposium 42.

Palfy, Cora and Eric Gilson. 2018. “The Hidden Curriculum in the Music Theory Classroom.”

Peters, Gretchen. 2016. “Do Students See Themselves in the Music Curriculum?: A Project to Encourage Inclusion.” Music Educators Journal 102, No. 4.

Robin, William. 2017. “What Controversial Changes at Harvard Mean for Music in the University.” Interview with Suzannah Clark, Anne Shreffler, and Alexander Rehding. 

Snodgrass, Jennifer Sterling. 2016. “Integration, Diversity, and Creativity: Reflections on the ‘Manifesto’ from the College Music Society.” Music Theory Online 22/1 (March). 

Wade, Bonnie C. 2004. Thinking Musically: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Specific methods and musical genres 

Western art music

Deguchi, Tomoko. 2018. “Promoting Diversity in the Undergraduate Classroom: Incorporating Asian Contemporary Composers’ Music in a Form and Analysis Course.”

Jenkins, Christopher. 2017. Exploring the Aesthetics of African-American Classical Music: An Annotated Bibliography

Patterson, Willis C., edited. 1984. Anthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers. New York: Edward B. Marks Music.

Composers of Color Resource Project

Composers of Color Slack Channel

Global Musical Modernisms Project

 

World art and traditional musics

Clendinning, Jane Piper. 2018. “Teaching World Music in the Music Theory Core.” In The Norton Guide to Teaching Music Theory, edited by Rachel Lumsden and Jeffrey Swinkin, 267-284. New York: W.W. Norton.

Navia, Gabriel and Gabriel Ferrão Moreira. 2020. “Incorporating Latin-American popular music in the study of musical form.” In The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy, edited by Leigh Van Handel. New York: Routledge.

Scherbenske, Amanda L. 2014. “Student-Centered Learning Strategies for Teaching World and Popular Musics.” Engaging Students 2.

 

Global popular musics

 

Journals 

The following journals often contain articles on music pedagogy, especially pertaining to race and ethnicity:

Music Theory Pedagogy Online
Since 2010.

Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education
Renamed from International Journal for Researcher Development, Emerald Publishing since 2010.

Race Ethnicity and Education
Published by Taylor & Francis under Routledge Imprint since 1998.

Race and Pedagogy Journal: Teaching and Learning for Justice 
Published by University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, Washington) since 2015; more general—not focused on music theory specifically.

The Review of Higher Education
Johns Hopkins University Press since 1978.

Equity and Excellence in Education
Official Journal of University of Massachusetts Amherst, College of Education since 1963.

Harvard Educational Review
Published by Harvard Education Publishing Group since 1930.

The Journal of Higher Education
Published by Ohio State University Press since 1930; published by Taylor & Francis under Routledge Imprint since 2017.

Communication Education
Published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of National Communication Association. Since 1952.

The College Music Symposium
Journal of the College Music Society. Established 1961.

The Glossary of Education Reform

New Directions for Teaching and Learning
Since 1980.

Review of Educational Research
Since 1931.

 

The following journals do not specialize in pedagogy, but have published some articles on this subject recently:

Newmusicbox in New Music USA
Two groups, American Music Center and Meet the Composer, merged to New Music USA in 2011.

GAMUT
Society of Mid-Atlantic, published by The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Office of Research since 2006.

Current Musicology
Founded in 1965 by graduate students at Columbia University.

Black Music Research Journal
Established in 1980, published by the University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Center for Black Music Research at the Columbia College Chicago.

 

Other Resources on Race and Ethnicity in Music Theory

The following articles and books are not related directly to pedagogical issues in music theory, but are recommended by the Committee on Race and Ethnicity:

Ahmed, Sara. 2012. On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Duke University Press.

Boyd, Clifton. 2020. “Being a Black Ph.D. Student Following George Floyd’s Murder.” Inside Higher Ed.

Ewell, Phil. 2020. “Music Theory and the White Racial Frame.” Music Theory Online 26/2.

Ewell, Phil. 2020. “Confronting Racism and Sexism in Music Theory.”

Hisama, Ellie. 2016. “Race/Ethnicity in the Profession.”

Hisama, Ellie. 2018. Power and Equity in the Academy: Change from Within,” Current Musicology, special issue Sounding the Break: Music Studies and the Political 102, edited by Tom Wetmore. 

Losada, Catherine. 2020. “A Reflection.”

Madrid, Alejandro L. 2017. “Diversity, Tokenism, Non-Canonical Musics, and the Crisis of the Humanities in U.S. Academia.” Journal of Music History Pedagogy 7/2: 124–29.

Winkler, Peter. 1997. “Writing Ghost Notes: The Poetics and Politics of Transcription.” In Keeping Score: Music, Disciplinarity, Culture, edited by David Schwarz, Anahid Kassabian, and Lawrence Siegel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.

Forum: “Ethnic Diversity in Music Theory: Voices from the Field,” GAMUT Volume 2, Issue 1 (2009)

Inconvenient Truths, and Changes to Believe In: Foreword to the Forum
Jeannie Ma. Guerrero

Diversity, Music, Theory, and the Neoliberal Academy
Sumanth Gopinath

Diversifying Music Theory
Youyoung Kang

In and Around Music Theory and the Academy: A Perspective
Horace J. Maxile, Jr.

On Diversity
Amy Cimini and Jairo Moreno