Registration

Register for the event and dinner here!

Information

Recognizing the racist history of music studies and confronting our own internalized biases involves critical reflection on all aspects of our work, including research, service and teaching. Teaching in particular is a powerful way to practice antiracism and advocate changes in “policies, behaviors and beliefs that perpetuate racist ideas and actions” (from the Poorvu Center’s page on Antiracist Pedagogy, citing Kendi 2019). This implicates both the content we teach and the pedagogical approaches we use to teach it. Moreover, antiracist education should not be confined to the university classroom: public-facing organizations are also highly important venues for practicing antiracist pedagogy. Thus, the Grant Hagan Society has organized an event that will bring together educators from universities, arts organizations and prison education initiatives to lead panels and workshops on how to be an effective antiracist pedagogue inside and outside the university classroom. Our guests are Stefanie Acevedo (Department of Music, University of Connecticut), André de Quadros (College of Fine Arts, Boston University), and Rebecca Kirk (Boston Lyric Opera).

Our event is generously supported by:

• Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration
• Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Fund
• Graduate and Professional Student Senate
• Department of Music
• Office of the Secretary and Vice President for University Life
• Belonging at Yale 

Location

The event will take place in Room 136, Humanities Quadrangle, 320 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511. A dinner will take place afterwards at Sitar, 45 Grove St, New Haven, CT 06511; availability for this dinner is limited to 25 seats including panellists and members of the Grant Hagan Society.

Schedule

WELCOME	10:30 am
READING DISCUSSION: Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, chapter 1 bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, introduction	10:35 – 11:50 am
——Lunch Break——	11:50 am – 1:00 pm
REBECCA KIRK: “Creating Safe Space for Authentic Dialogue” How do we gather mindfully and purposefully to open and hold space—a safe space where people who have many different life-experiences can come together and contribute in a meaningful way?  We will walk through some of the best practices for any space and any age and reflect on why they are important and what purpose they serve.	1:00 – 1:30 pm
Q&A	1:30 – 1:45 pm
STEFANIE ACEVEDO: “Challenges and methods for creating an inclusive music theory curriculum” The needs of students in music theory have changed significantly over the past few decades, and it is imperative that music theory curricula serve such diverse needs appropriately. Stefanie Acevedo will present some of the work that she has done to reform undergraduate theory curricula for the twenty-first century.	1:45 – 2:15 pm
Q&A	2:15 – 2:30 pm
ANDRÉ de QUADROS: “Borders and Walls, Resistance, Forgiveness, and Transgressing the Dominant Pedagogy” Based on decades working in a variety of choral settings, from professional to the marginalized, André de Quadros will discuss the ways in which we are called to transgress, disobey, and dismantle in the cause of justice. He calls for a new normal in choral music, founded on radical compassion, dialogue, and community engagement.	2:30 – 3:00 pm
Q&A	3:00 – 3:15 pm
——Break——	3:15 – 3:30 pm
PANEL: Antiracist Pedagogy Inside and Outside the University (Music) Classroom Moderator: Collin Edouard	3:30 – 4:35 pm
Q&A	4:35-4:50 pm
CLOSING	4:50 pm
Reception (joint with New England Conference of Music Theorists)	5:00 – 6:30pm
Dinner	7pm onwards

Speaker bios

Dr. Stefanie Acevedo (she/her) is Assistant Professor of music theory at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on the analysis and cognition of musical expectation, mainly geared toward understanding how we learn and categorize musical style. Current projects include computational work modeling harmonic expectation in popular music, and behavioral investigations of synchronization during Javanese gamelan performance. A PhD graduate in music theory from Yale University, Stefanie holds masters degrees psychology (University at Buffalo) and music theory (Yale, Bowling Green State University), as well as a bachelors degree in music composition (University of Florida).

As a Latina immigrant, Dr. Acevedo is committed to diversifying the field of music theory. During her previous post at the University of Dayton, she and her colleague (Dr. Toby Rush) redesigned the music theory curriculum to better serve the needs of twenty-first-century music majors; their Theory 1 syllabus received an honorable mention for the 2021 Society for Music Theory Diversity in Course Design Award. She has served in various capacities as a mentor, committee member, and consultant with a goal to advance diversity and inclusion, including recent participation in the 2023 Accelerator Workshop “A Music Theory Curriculum for the 21st Century” at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

 

Rebecca Ann S. Kirk, M.Ed. combines her skills in community arts education and curriculum design, creative youth development, creative facilitation, and program management to build sustainable, equitable, and authentic community partnerships. She is currently the Director of Community & Learning for Boston Lyric Opera and has worked in the community arts sector for nearly twenty years with organizations including Washington National Opera, Jacobs Pillow, Caldera Arts, and the Tower Theater Foundation. Rebecca has a gift for seeing the potential in others and empowering them to creatively contribute in a way that honors their strengths and supports the community. She is passionate about cultivating relationships between sectors to build innovative partnerships that contribute to the goals of each partner. She believes the arts and artists have an essential role to play in fostering healthy, engaged communities. Rebecca draws on her skills in conflict mediation and training in integrating inclusion, diversity, equity and access to guide her processes.

Rebecca is a self-proclaimed life-long learner and integrates her experiences into her work. She embodies the heart and soul of an artist with training and practice in classical voice, dance, theater, and the visual arts. She is an educator with experience as a teaching artist, a curriculum designer, and has trained and mentored teaching artists and classroom teachers. Rebecca is also a researcher and has contributed to the field of community arts education. She holds an M.Ed. from Lesley University in Art, Community, and Education and B.A. in Sociology from Whitman College.

 

Dr. André de Quadros is a professor of music at Boston University with affiliations in African, African American, Asian, Jewish, Muslim studies, prison education, Forced Migration and Antiracist Research. As an artist, scholar, and human rights activist, he has worked in over 40 countries in the most diverse settings including professional ensembles, projects with prisons, psychosocial rehabilitation, refugees, and victims of sexual violence, torture, and trauma.

His work crosses race and mass incarceration, peacebuilding, forced migration, and Islamic culture. He directs choirs and choral projects in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the United States, Israel and the Arab world, and the Mexico-US border. In 2019, he was a Distinguished Academic Visitor at the University of Cambridge.