GHS hosts virtual coffee hour with Professors Philip Ewell and Braxton Shelley

On October 29, 2020, the GHS held a virtual coffee hour with Professors Philip Ewell (CUNY Hunter College) and Braxton Shelley (Harvard). We were excited to be able to have an open dialogue with two Black scholars, particularly as it related to the strategies they used to survive in a field that has made it so difficult for Black and BIPOC scholars to thrive. We also discussed how the Black Lives Matter movement and the Journal of Schenkerian Studies scandal have pushed the field to make urgent and necessary steps toward anti-racism, and how we as graduate students can best advocate for change within and outside of our department. These issues are often deceptively simple when discussed in the abstract, so we appreciated the opportunity to consider some of the concrete roadblocks that can arise when trying to effectively bring anti-racism into teaching and research, and how to overcome them. We’re extremely grateful to Professor Ewell and Shelley for being so generous with their time, and look forward to future dialogues with these inspiring scholars!