Season 2, Episode 4

Maybe you teach music history, and maybe you don’t, but pedagogy is a part of your life: we have all been teachers, and we have all been students. This conversation, with musicologists Andrew Dell’Antonio and Sara Haefeli, is about how they have innovated in their classrooms, but it is also about teaching itself as a practice, as an art, and as a form of research. What does it mean to abandon traditional lecturing and traditional grading, and empower students to see themselves as creators of music history? 

Sara Haefeli is associate professor of music theory, history, and composition at Ithaca College. Andrew Dell’Antonio is professor of music at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music.

If you’re interested in learning more about the work of Professor Haefeli and Professor Dell’Antonio (@dellantonio on Twitter), check out:

• “What Constitutes Core in the Conservatory Curriculum?” a panel on pedagogy at the 2020 AMS conference with Haefeli, Dell’Antonio, and Erica Scheinberg and Melanie Lowe
• The blog The Avid Listener
• Haefeli’s articles “Using Blogs for Better Student Writing Outcomes” and “From Answers to Questions: Fostering Student Creativity and Engagement in Research and Writing” in the Journal of Music History Pedagogy
• The University of Michigan Press book series “Music and Social Justice,” which Dell’Antonio edits with William Cheng
• Haefeli’s book Writing in Music: A Brief Guide (Oxford) co-authored with Lynne Rogers and Karen Bottge
• Outside of musicology, Prof Dell’Antonio recommends checking out the work of Hybrid Pedagogy, especially Jesse Stommel, Maha Bali, Cate Denial, and Kevin Gannon
• Prof Haefeli recommends Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic’s Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, and Susan D. Blum (ed.) Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead).
• For more on Universal Design for Learning, check out Jay Timothy Dolmage’s article “Universal Design: Places to Start” in Disability Studies Quarterly, and his book Academic Ableism.

Sound Expertise is hosted by Will Robin (@seatedovation), and produced by D. Edward Davis (@warmsilence). Please subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and/or Spotify. Questions or comments? Email williamlrobin@ gmail

A written transcript of this episode is available here; many thanks to Andrew Dell’Antonio for volunteering to prepare transcripts for the show!