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.
Sarah Koval is assistant professor of music at the University of Mississippi, where she teaches the core music history survey, graduate music research methods, and a special topics class on music and medicine. Her research focuses on musical practices of everyday life, particularly in early modern England, with methodologies drawn from material culture, the history of science, sound studies, and book history. Her current book project showcases the many ways music was written by hand into books full of recipes for both food and medicine. Koval serves as cochair of the AMS Notation, Inscription, and Visualization Study Group.
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.
Siri Ducharme Leblanc is a French-Canadian violinist from Ottawa, Ontario, currently pursuing a master’s degree in violin performance at McGill University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in violin performance from the University of Toronto, where she studied with Marie Bérard. Siri has participated in numerous festivals and academies across Canada and internationally, and is passionate about performing and advocating for underrepresented composers. Her research interests focus on women in the arts, particularly the historical and contemporary disparities present within the classical music world.
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.
Trinity Thai graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor of music (honors), a minor in science, technology, and society, and certificates in music and applied health, piano pedagogy, and music business. She is currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration at McMaster University, specializing in music management, after receiving an entrance scholarship and being named a finalist in the DeGroote School of Business scholarship competition. Trinity currently runs her own music studio, and in her spare time she enjoys cooking complex dishes and traveling the world.
Vito Park is an artist developing a research-based practice centered on perception as a political condition, creating encounters that reorient how viewers sense the world. His transdisciplinary approach examines the agency of art amid the pressures of the present and how collaborative projects can bring different publics into shared reflection. He holds a degree in visual studies and music from the University of Toronto and is currently a candidate for the master of science in art, culture, and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
