EDUCATION
Ph.D., McIntire Department of Music. University of Virginia, 2017.
     Dissertation: “‘Rap on the Radio: Making Hip Hop into Hit Pop, 1986-1994.”
     Committee: Drs. Karl Hagstrom Miller (Chair), Fred Maus, Jack Hamilton, Grace Hale.
B.A., Music and Mathematics (with Honors). Macalester College, 2008.
 
RESEARCH AND TEACHING FIELDS
Popular Music, Media Studies, Music and Race, Music History, Radio Industry, Music Analysis, American Music, Piano, Choral Conducting.
 
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2017-2018. Visiting Assistant Professor of American Music, Amherst College, Amherst, MA.
 
PUBLICATIONS
“‘Check Out the Hook While My DJ Revolves It’: How the Music Industry Made Rap into Pop in the Late 1980s” (7000 words). In The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Music Studies, edited by Jason Lee Oakes and Justin D. Burton. Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
 
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
2016-2017. Dean’s Dissertation Completion Fellowship, University of Virginia.
2016. David Sanjek Graduate Student Paper Prize, International Association for the
Study of Popular Music – United States.
2011-2015. Velimirovic Fellowship, University of Virginia.
 
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
“Rap on the Radio: How Hip Hop Became Mainstream.” Paper will be presented at the American Musicological Society Annual Meeting, Rochester, NY, 2017.

“Fear of a Black Planet: American Radio Responds to Rap’s Popularity in the Early 1990s.” Paper presented at the Society for American Music Annual Meeting,Montreal, QC, 2017. 

“Rap’s Merchandise: How Commodified Musical Artifacts Affect Historical Narratives.” Paper presented at the American Musicological Society/Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, 2016.
 
“‘Hip-Hop, Got Turned into Hit Pop’: How Crossover Radio Stations Influenced the Growth of Rap in the Late 1980s.” Paper presented at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music – United States/Canada Annual Meeting, Calgary, AB, 2016.

“Ballroom Aesthetics: Evaluating Adaptations in Ravel’s La Valse.” Paper presented at the South Central Graduate Music Consortium Conference, Charlottesville, VA, 2012.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Visiting Assistant Professor of American Music at Amherst College
Fall 2017             Hip Hop History and Culture
Fall 2017             Sounding Race in American Popular Music, 1955-present
 
Instructor of Record at University of Virginia
Spring 2017        Music and Discourse
Fall 2016             Keyboard Skills
Summer 2016    History of American Popular Music
Spring 2015        Theory II
Spring 2013        Theory II
Fall 2012              Theory I
Spring 2012         Musicianship II
 
Graduate Teaching Assistant at University of Virginia
Fall 2014              Popular Musics (Dr. Karl Hagstrom Miller)
Spring 2014         History of Jazz (Dr. Scott DeVeaux)
Fall 2013              Technosonics (Dr. Matthew Burtner)
Fall 2011               Musicianship III (Dr. Adam Carter)
       
Secondary Education
2009-2011           Choral Director, Lausanne Collegiate School, Memphis, TN.
2008-2009         Music Director, Maine School of Science and Mathematics,Limestone, ME.
           
PEDAGOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
2016-2017            Graduate Student Teaching Consultant, University of Virginia Center
                              for Teaching Excellence.
2016                      Participant, Course Design Institute, University of Virginia Center for
                              Teaching Excellence.
2015-2017            Participant, Tomorrow’s Professor Today, University of Virginia Center
                              for Teaching Excellence.