Lecture Series

Lectures in Music Studies is co-sponsored by The Ohio State University Libraries. The series (formerly known as Lectures in Musicology) invites conversation with experts across musicology and theory disciplines. Numerous university centers and institutes at Ohio State also provide valuable opportunities for interdisciplinary research. Those of particular interest include the Center for Cognitive Science, the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the Hilandar Research Center for Medieval Slavic Studies, the Slavic and East European Studies Center, the Center for African Studies, the Center for Folklore Studies, the Humanities Institute, the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute, the Melton Center for Jewish Studies and the Wexner Center for the Arts.

Offered Mondays at 4 p.m. and in person unless noted otherwise.

Attendance is free.

• In-person at the 18th Avenue Library, 175 W. 18th Ave. (Music & Dance Library, second floor, room 205). Campus visitors, please use either the Tuttle Park Place Garage or the Ohio Union South Garage. All other garages in the vicinity of the 18th Ave. Library are closed to visitors before 4 p.m.

Spring 2026

Lectures will be held on Mondays at 4 p.m. at 205 Music/Dance Library unless otherwise noted.

Co-sponsored by The Ohio State University Libraries and the School of Music.

January 26

Cesar Favila, fellow at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (New Haven, CT) and associate professor of musicology at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, presents "Seeking a Franciscan Theology of Voice."

February 16

Nicholas Booker, PhD candidate at The Ohio State University, with Marion Paynter Howard and Richard Trethewey present “Cornish Cousin Music: Celtic, Folk, and Popular Music Communities in Cornwall and North America.”

March 30

YuHao Chen, Global Arts + Humanities postdoctoral fellow at The Ohio State University, presents “Tracing Sino-Phonography: A Perspective from Sound Studies and Disability History.”

April 13

Larissa Mulder, PhD candidate in Musicology at Ohio State, presents “Listening with Keen Ears: Contemporary Revoicings of the Irish Caoine.”

Additional details at Upcoming Events.

All events are subject to change.

Autumn 2025

• 9/19/25 | Arved Ashby, professor of musicology, Ohio State, presents "My Queer Anthem." 
• 10/9–11/25 | Practitioner-Centered Music Theory Conference | Timashev Family Music Building. Featured speakers: Jason Rawls, assistant professor of hip hop, Ohio State; Jonathan De Souza, associate professor of music theory, University of Western Ontario; Leslie Tilley, associate professor of world music, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 12/17/25 | Tammy L. Kernodle, University Distinguished Professor of Music, Miami University (Ohio), recent recipient of the School of Music Alumni Award, presents "I've Got a Story to Tell: Black Women, Autobiography, and the Reimagining of Jazz History.” Co-sponsored by the Ohio State Humanities Institute.
• 12/24/25 | Aleksandra (Sasha) Drozzina, assistant professor of music theory, Ohio State, presents "Monetochka and IC3PEAK: Russian Popular Music and/as Resistance."

Spring 2025

• 1/27/25 | Johanna Frymoyer, assistant professor of music theory, University of Notre Dame, presents “Topical Affordances in Modernist Performance Practice.”
• 2/3/25 | Elea Proctor, assistant professor, Department of African American and African Studies at Ohio State, presents “Black Women and Blackface Minstrelsy at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.”
• 2/24/25 | Inaugural Lecture: Shawn Wallace, professor of jazz saxophone, presents "Authentic Representation and Systemic Exclusion in Black American Music." The Arts and Humanities Inaugural Lecture Series is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences.
• 2/17/25 | Featured in The Lantern | Dylan Crosson, PhD candidate in musicology at Ohio State, presents “Audible Orthodoxies: How Contemporary Worship Music Turns Evangelical Values into Musical Style.”
• 2/20/25 | William Poland Lecture: Form and the Song Persona. The 2025 William Poland Lecture will be presented by Drew Nobile, associate professor and chair of music theory at the University of Oregon's School of Music and Dance.
• 3/31/25 | Jason Buchea, associated faculty and PhD candidate in musicology at Ohio State, presents “Massamba Diop: Becoming the Sonic Embodiment of the Black Panther."