Matthew D. Morrison is a PhD candidate in Musicology at Columbia University and a native of Charlotte, NC. He completed a masters in Musicology at The Catholic University of America and was a Presidential music scholar at Morehouse College. While at Morehouse, Matthew actively pursued performance as he studied violin and conducting. Upon visiting Columbia, Matthew was struck by the unique cadre of professors and students, and subsequently decided to pursue musicology under the direction of his dissertation advisor, George Lewis, and faculty advisor, Ellie Hisama. In addition to his graduate pursuits, Matthew is also interested in publishing, and he has served a Editor-in-Chief of Current Musicology. As a professor, Matthew has served as adjunct instructor of black music at Vassar College, Music Humanities instructor at Columbia University, and faculty member of the W.E.B. DuBois Scholars institute housed at Princeton University. Matthew is writing a dissertation titled “Sound in the Construction of Race,” and the aim of this dissertation is to consider the implications of positing sound as a major component in both individual and societal racial formation. Music, as the soundtrack to daily life, serves as a central site to interrogate the ways in which race is heard, formed, and interpreted within the political and cultural structures of society. As such, Matthew seeks to unpack the ways in which the racialization of sound is central to how humans have come to imagine both self and other.
Brief CV:
Education
Ph.D. student in musicology, Columbia University
“Sound in the Construction of Race”; Columbia University, George E. Lewis, Advisor
M.A. in musicology, The Catholic University of America, 2008, Andrew H. Weaver, Advisor
B.A. in music, violin performance; Magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa; Morehouse College, 2003
Teaching Experience
Instructor, Columbia University, Department of Music; Summer 2012. Course: “Music Humanities”
Adjunct Instructor, Vassar College; Music and Africana Studies; Fall 2011-present. Course: “A History of Black Music.”
Faculty Member, Du Bois Scholars Summer Institute; Princeton University, Summer 2010-present. Courses: Critical Reading; Performance Workshop; “Black Sounds: African American Popular Music and The Shaping of an American Conscience.”
“Galileo Galilei.” Contemporary Civilizations Wiki Entry. Columbia University, Spring 2011.
“What’s Graffiti got to do with Street Fashion?” Thought Catalog. Online Peer Reviewed Blog. http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/graffiti-got-to-do-with-street-fashion-saggin/, Spring 2011
“Fluxus with Us: A Personal Perspective on Benjamin Patterson.” Studio Museum of Harlem Blog, http://www.studiomuseum.org/studio-blog/harlem/interviews-friends/flux-us-personal-persepective-benjamin-patterson, Spring 2011
“Reconstructing the Borders of Music Studies Beyond the Color Line.” Panel: “Envisioning a ‘Relational Musicology’: A Dialogue with Georgina Born.” Annual joint meeting of the American Musicological Society, Society of Ethnomusicology, and Society of Music Theory. New Orleans, LA, Fall 2012.
“(De)Racialized Sound: The 1980s, Michael Jackson, and Post-modern Pop,” National Association of Ethnic Studies annual conference, New Orleans, LA, Spring 2012
“Post-modern Pop: The 1980s, Whitney Houston, and the “new” American Popular Sound,” National Council of Black Studies annual conference, Atlanta, GA, Spring 2012
Panel Chair, “Social Media, Mediated Socialities.” Producing Race: Technology and the African Diaspora, Graduate Student Conference, English and Comparative Literature. Columbia University, Fall 2011.
Moderator, “Black Arts in the Age of Obama.” Dance New Amsterdam. New York, NY, Fall 2011.
Fellowships:
Herbert L. Hunter Fellowship in Music, 2011-2012
Paul F. Lazerfeld Mellon Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow, Institute for the Study of Economic Research and Policy, 2012-2013
Columbia University Teaching Fellow, 2008-2013