Upcoming Events

  • A special session on "Performing Music/Performing Disability" has been accepted for the 2012 AMS / SMT / SEM Conference in New Orleans.
  • At AMS / SMT / SEM 2012, the AMS Study Group on Music and Disability is sponsoring a session devoted to unpublished works in progress.

More information and full Listing

Welcome

Disability

-- defined as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities -- is a pervasive and permanent aspect of the human condition. Our Interest Group seeks to engage issues related to disability in a variety of ways:

  • Building on the astonishing outpouring of humanistic work in Disability Studies in the past ten years (Disability Studies offers a sociopolitical analysis of disability, focusing on social and cultural constructions of the meaning of disability), our Interest Group seeks to foster conversation among musicians about music-historical and music-theoretical issues related to disability.
  • Our group has sponsored a series of panels and paper sessions at scholarly conferences, and members of our Interest Group have published articles and books and music and disability (see our online Reading List). Many of these had their origins in events sponsored by our group (see especially the essay collection Sounding Off (edited by Neil Lerner and Joe Straus) and the special issue of Music Theory Online (vol. 15, nos. 3-4).
  • Our Interest Group provides guidance and resources for classroom teachers—see our Resources for Teachers and Students and our Panel of Experts.
  • Our Interest Group meets annually to hear presentations and plan future events. If you are interested please contact Joseph N. Straus or Dave Headlam. To subscribe to our list-serv, please send mail to LISTSERV@GC.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU with the command (paste it!): SUBSCRIBE DISMUS-L

New Literature & Media

Joseph N. Straus has a recent interview on a WQXR Blog:
Beethoven’s Deafness: For Better or Worse – Or Neither?

Music, Disability, and Society

Alex Lubet
forthcoming from Temple University Press 		Extraordinary Measures: Disability in Music

Joseph N. Straus
 Sounding Off
Edited by
Joseph N Straus
& Neil Lerner


Special Coupon (until 1/11/11) (pdf)

Support Network

Look here for information related to pedagogy, personal experiences, family and work situations, etc. and disability.


Check Responses or Participate in a Survey on "Teaching Experience with Students Who Have Disabilities"

Advice from a panel on pedagogy and other issues.

Information and recent exchanges on dismus-list / SMT list on disability issues.

Important News

The Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss has published a new book titled "Making Music with a Hearing Loss: Strategies and Stories." This book is now available on Amazon.

Report from the 2011 SMT Meeting in Minneapolis, MN.

Partnership Program

As part of its current focus on issues faced by scholars with disabilities, the SMT Interest Group on Music and Disability announces a new Partnership Program. We will pair interested individuals (faculty and graduate students) for the purpose of sharing stories, ideas, and information about living in academia with a disability. The program is open to individuals affiliated with either AMS or SMT. These pairings might take the form of traditional mentor/mentee relationships with relatively senior faculty guiding relatively junior faculty or graduate students, or may take the form of partnerships between peers.

If you (or a close family member) live with a disability and would like to form a sustaining contact with a fellow music scholar in a similar position, please forward your contact information and any specific wishes to Shersten Johnson at srjohnson2 [at] stthomas.edu. All information will remain confidential, and we will do our best to pair you up with a suitable mentor, mentee, or partner.

Welcome

Welcome to the SMT Interest Group on Music and Disability

copyright 2011 The Society for Music Theory Interest Group on Music and Disability.
Webmaster: Dave Headlam (dheadlam [at] esm.rochester.edu