Virtual Speaker Series 2021

Virtual Speaker Series 2021

The aim of this series is to look forward and think about where various subfields of music cognition are headed in academia and outside the academy. The series is aimed at scholars of all ages, including undergraduate and graduate students of music, as well as professors who will mentor scholars in a post-Covid world.


Sign up for the listserv that will provide (1) reminders of the next presentation and (2) Zoom links by clicking here


All events will be on Mondays at 4pm EST (through March 8) or EDT (March 15 though end) unless otherwise noted below. 

  • February 22 at 4pm EST:
    • On the future of music research
    • David Huron, Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University School of Music & Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences
  • March 1 at 5pm EST:
    • Use-inspired music cognition: Designing cognitively informed musical interventions for the brain
    • Psyche Loui, Assistant Professor of Creativity and Creative Practice, Northeastern University Department of Music
  • March 8 at 4pm EST:
    • Town hall on anti-racism in music cognition
    • Dominique Vuvan, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Skidmore College
    • SMPC Anti-Racism committee
  • March 15 at 4pm EDT (Eastern Daylight Time from today onwards):
    • Career preparedness through alumni engagement
    • Roman Holowinsky, Managing Director & Co-Founder at The Erdős Institute and Associate Professor of Mathematics, Ohio State University
  • March 22 at 4pm EDT:
    • Music theory as junk science, and how and why we need to fix it
    • Justin London, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music, Cognitive Science, and the Humanities, Carleton College
  • March 29 at 4pm EDT:
    • Alt-ac panel from speakers with Music PhDs
    • Suhnne Ahn, Director of the Peabody at Homewood Program 
    • Nell Cloutier, Director of Measurement and Learning at Habitat for Humanity, Greater San Francisco
    • Dana DeVlieger, Law Student, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law 
    • Lindsay Warrenburg, Data Scientist at Sonde Health
  • April 5 at 4pm EDT:
    • What the history of computational musicology can tell us about the future of corpus studies
    • Daniel Shanahan, Associate Professor of Music Theory and Cognition, Ohio State University School of Music
  • April 12 at 4pm EDT:
    • The future of music cognition through the lens of music notation
    • Joe Plazak, Sibelius Principal Software Engineer and Product Owner
  • April 19 at 4pm EDT:
    • New frontiers in the genetic basis of musicality
    • Reyna Gordon, Assistant Professor, Departments of Otolaryngology & Psychology, Vanderbilt University
  • April 26 at 4pm EDT:
    • Empathic listening: Music and the social mind
    • Zachary Wallmark, Assistant Professor of Musicology and Affiliated Faculty of the Center for Translational Neuroscience, University of Oregon
  • May 3 at 4pm EDT:
    • Analyzing the perceptual effects of orchestration practice through the lens of auditory grouping principles
    • Stephen McAdams, Canada Research Chair in Music Perception and Cognition; Professor of Music, Schulich School of Music, McGill University; Director, ACTOR Project (Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of ORchestration)
  • May 10 at 4pm EDT:
    • Melody and rhythm: Effects on tempo determination
    • Leigh VanHandel, Associate Professor of Music Theory, University of British Columbia
  • May 17 at 4pm EDT:
    • Musicality and gene-culture coevolution
    • Aniruddh Patel, Professor, Dept. of Psychology, Tufts University; Fellow, CIFAR Program in Brain, Mind, and Consciousness
  • May 24 at 4pm EDT:
    • Music cognition between the sciences and the humanities
    • Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, Professor of Music, Princeton University
  • May 31 at 4pm EDT:
    • From compassion to being moved: Social emotions evoked by music
    • Jonna Vuoskoski, Associate Professor, Departments of Musicology and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion (IMV), University of Oslo
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