Western outstandingly represented at AMS/SMT joint conference

An impressive number of Western students, postdocs, faculty, and alums presented at this month’s joint conference of the American Musicological Society and the Society for Music Theory in Minneapolis. These are the two leading conferences in their fields: both have a low acceptance rate for abstracts.

Below is a list of some of the many Western-associated scholars who presented their work at this event.

  • Rena Roussin, Western University [Postdoctoral Associate 2025–]
    Chair: Musicking in Disabled Community: Access Intimacy and Cultural Activism
  • Elisabeth Roberts, Ashland University [PhD musicology 2025]
    “Y2K Turned Out All Right”: Vaporwave Livestreams as Therapeutic Memory Practice.
  • Kristin Franseen, Western University [Postdoctoral Associate 2023–]
    Reputation, Myth, and Fiction in the Nineteenth-Century Reception of Salieri’s Axur, e d’Ormus. 
  • Martin Ross, University of Western Ontario [PhD music theory 2022]
    Lingering Horrors: Trauma in Reich’s Different Trains, “After the War.” 
  • April Morris, Western University [PhD musicology 2021]
    “Whatever small part we could do”: Community and Grassroots Leadership in Benefit Concerts for Ukraine. 
  • Kristen Wallentinsen, Rutgers University [PhD music theory 2017]
    Reich’s Philosopher: Ludwig Wittgenstein’s influence on Reich and his Reception in Music Theory. 
  • Abigail Shupe, Colorado State University [PhD music theory 2015]
    Memorializing (and Manipulating?) 9/11 Musical Memory. 
  • Anita Hardeman, Western Illinois University [PhD musicology 2010]
    Chair: Opera and Disability Studies
  • Jonathan De Souza, University of Western Ontario [BMus 2005; faculty 2013–]
    Chair: Techniques and Technologies
  • Alan Dodson, Mount Allison University [PhD music theory 2003]
    Tweety Catches the Groove: Repetition and Emergent Meter in Juvenile Song Sparrow (melospiza melodia) Vocalizations. 
  • Kyle Hutchinson, Colgate University [BMus 2011, MA music theory 2014]
    Chair: New Approaches to Harmonic Function
  • Margaret Cormier, Independent Scholar, Toronto [BMus 2013, MA musicology 2015]
    Pay to Play: Class, Labour, and the Hidden Costs of an Opera Career
  • Nancy Murphy, University of Michigan [BMus 2007, MA music theory 2009]
    Chair: Joni Mitchell
  • Rachel Gain [MA music theory 2019]
    Beyond Rhythm and Steps: Interrogating Epistemologies of Academic Rhythm Tap Dance Transcription
  • Aldwyn Hogg [MA musicology 2017]
    The Lynching at Peekskill: Paul Robeson and Early Cold War Black Radical Politics
  • Andrew Goldman [Postdoctoral Associate 2018-20]
    Chair: Memory, Affect, and Attention
  • Natalie Miller [Postdoctoral Associate 2026-28]
    Degree of Audiovisual Congruence Shapes Listener Engagement with Short-Form Media

Elisabeth Roberts, Ashland University [PhD musicology 2025]   Kristen Wallentinsen, Rutgers University [PhD music theory 2017]   Martin Ross, University of Western Ontario [PhD music theory 2022]

Photos: Elisabeth Roberts, Ashland University [PhD musicology 2025] (left); Kristen Wallentinsen, Rutgers University [PhD music theory 2017] (center); Martin Ross, University of Western Ontario [PhD music theory 2022] (right). 

photos courtesy of Jonathan De Souza