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.

Autumn 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.

Additional details will be posted on Upcoming Events soon.

September 14

Lois Rosow, professor emerita of musicology, The Ohio State University, presents "Reconsidering the partition réduite." 

September 28

Jeremy W. Smith, assistant professor of music theory, The Ohio State University, presents "Conceptual Metaphors in EDM Production: How DAW Technologies Structure Producer Discourse."

Special guest lecture

Thursday, Oct. 22 | 11:30–12:30 | 205 Music & Dance Library

Benjamin Bagby, co-founder and director of the award-winning international ensemble Sequentia, presents "Finding the Lost Voice of Early Medieval Song." Co-sponsored by the School of Music, University Libraries, the American Musicological Society, and Early Music in Columbus. 

November 2

Stevie "Dr. View" Johnson, assistant professor of creative practice in popular music, The Ohio State University, presents "What does Scholarship Sounds Like? Hip-Hop, Music Education, and Reimagining the Academic Book."

November 23

Andrea Tinajero Pérez, PhD candidate and graduate teaching associate in music theory, The Ohio State University, presents "Musical Feet: The Choreomusical Motive and Ballet Folkórico." 

All events are subject to change.

Spring 2026

• 2/2/26 — Tina Tallon, assistant professor of Artificial Intelligence and Music Composition, The Ohio State University, presents "The Vibe as Cultural Compression Algorithm."
• 2/9/26 — 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."
• 2/16/26 — 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.”
• 2/26/26 — 5:30 p.m. |  Timashev Recital Hall. Tim Chenette, professor of music theory at Utah State University, is this year's guest speaker for the annual William Poland Lecture. He will present "How in the World Do People Identify Chords by Ear?"
• 3/2/26 — Chelsea Burns, associate professor of music theory at the Butler School of Music, and affiliate faculty at the Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies, both at the University of Texas–Austin, presents "Neither National Nor Universal: Rethinking Place in Musical Modernisms."
• Thursday 3/12/26, 12–1 p.m. | Ohio Union Barbie Tootle Room. Tina Tallon, assistant professor of Artificial Intelligence and Music Composition, The Ohio State University, presents “Vibe Check: Sound and Surveillance in the AI Era.” Global Arts + Humanities | Cross-Disciplinary Research Exchange
• 3/30/26 — YuHao Chen, Global Arts + Humanities postdoctoral fellow at The Ohio State University, presents “Tracing Sino-Phonography: A Perspective from Sound Studies and Disability History.”
• 4/13/26 — Larissa Mulder, PhD candidate in Musicology at Ohio State, presents “Listening with Keen Ears: Contemporary Revoicings of the Irish Caoine.”

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."
• 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."