Rena Roussin studies the ways art music reflects and constructs concepts of disability, equity, and gender in late eighteenth- and twenty-first-century contexts, as well as strategies of anticolonial activism in contemporary North American opera. She recently completed her doctorate at the University of Toronto, and is currently a postdoctoral associate at the University of Western Ontario, where she is working on her book project, Positioning Contemporary Opera in Canada: Identities, Indigeneities, Intersectionalities. Additional recent or forthcoming publications appear with Bloomsbury, Cambridge, and Oxford Presses. Rena serves on the current leadership team of the AMS Music and Disability Study Group.
Samantha Bassler is a multiply neurodivergent and disabled musician and musicologist. She works as a Part-Time Lecturer in Music (level 2) at Rutgers University-Newark, and as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of music history and theory at New York University. Samantha’s research includes music, gender, and disability in early modern England, advocacy for scholars with invisible disabilities and neurodivergence, trauma-informed pedagogy and universal design, and music antiquarians during the long eighteenth century. In December 2023, Samantha coedited, with Katherine Butler and Katie Bank, the edited collection Byrd Studies in the Twenty-First Century.
Shannon McAlister is a PhD candidate in music theory and history and a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Connecticut. She earned her MA in music theory and graduate certificates in disability studies in public health, and college instruction, from the University of Connecticut. She completed her BM in music education with a minor in disability studies from the University of Delaware. Shannon’s research interests include music pedagogy, disability studies, and the intersection of music and public health. She is deeply committed to fostering inclusive learning environments and continuously improving herself to become a better educator.
Tekla Babyak holds a PhD in Musicology from Cornell University and is based in Davis, California. She is a disabled independent scholar-activist with multiple sclerosis. Her research focuses on music of the Romantic era, with an emphasis on disability studies, autoethnography, and philosophical aesthetics. Recent and forthcoming publications include articles in 19th-Century Music, Nineteenth-Century Music Review, and Music Analysis. She serves on the American Musicological Society Board as a Director-at-Large. Also, as part of her multifaceted career, she offers freelance editorial services and advanced piano lessons.
