Music Colloquium Series

Our weekly Friday colloquia showcase current research by distinguished visiting scholars alongside our own faculty and graduate students in musicology, historical performance practice, and music education. Sessions are free and open to the public. A brief reception follows each talk to keep the conversation going.

📅 When: Fridays at 4:00 p.m. (during the academic term)
📍 Where: Harkness Chapel, Classroom
👥 Who: Open to the public

Fall 2025 Schedule

September 5

Lisa Nielson (CWRU)
"Henry George Farmer and the Invention of 'Arabian' music"


September 12

Carlos Gamez (CWRU)
“Our Lady of Guadalupe of Mexico and King Ferdinand VI of Spain: The Politics of Liturgy in Spanish Chant Sources”

Courtney Nichols (CWRU)
“‘The Freak who Sings in the Tubs’: Camp Performance and Gay Empowerment in New York’s Continental Bathhouse”


September 19

Elea Proctor (Ohio State University)
“Black Women and Blackface Minstrelsy at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”


September 26

Camilo Lozano Velasquez (CWRU)
“‘It's she who holds her tongue who gets a man’: Performativity, Music, Gender, and Sexuality in a Selection of Animated Disney Films”

Anna Somerville (CWRU)
“Poisonous Personae: Operatic Sorceresses and Witchcraft in Late Seventeenth-Century France”


October 3

Stephanie Doktor (Temple University)
“Reproducing Inequality in Pop Music Scholarship”


October 10

Deirdre Loughridge (Northeastern University)
“They Can, So What Now? Music and Machines 1740/2025”


October 24

Simi Olabode, Ellen Sauer Tanyeri, Mary Galvin (CWRU)
Lightning Talks from the Library of Congress


October 31

Cara Bernard (University of Connecticut)
Title TBA


November 14

Rafique Illyas-Watson (CWRU)
“‘One for Ghosts’: Conjure, Black Temporality, and Self-Expression in Instrumental Sample-Based Hip Hop”


November 21

Benjamin Helton (CWRU)
“The Perceived State of Secondary Music Programs Amid Uncertainty and Enrollment Shifts”


December 5

Music Education Students (CWRU)
Qualitative Poster Session


Past Colloquia


Safety Guidelines: University Health and Counseling Services (UH&CS) is committed to protecting the health and well-being of our students and our campus community. Consult university guidance for any respiratory virus, including COVID-19 and influenza.