The undergraduate liberal arts degree in music (typically known as the B.A.) entails particular challenges at schools of music that tend to center professional degrees such as performance and music education. In these contexts, the B.A. is sometimes viewed as a less rigorous degree (a "B.M. lite"), and as peripheral to the school's larger mission to produce professional music practitioners. At the same time, the flexibility in liberal arts degrees suggests the potential for the B.A. to both complement a school's professional offerings and to stand on its own as an attractive and valuable degree for 21st-century global citizens. But many B.A degrees are outdated or fail to serve current student populations. Reshaping such programs can help them meet their potential, and given the broad purview of musicological perspectives, musicologists have a special role to play in B.A. curriculum reform.
In this roundtable discussion, a panel of musicologists from various institutions will offer short papers detailing recent, potential, and upcoming changes to their B.A. in Music degrees, with an emphasis on both the processes and products of curricular reform. Panelists will discuss collaborating with colleagues to redefine degree requirements; working within structures that center preparation for professional musical pursuits; adopting inclusive pedagogical practices and incorporating them into curricula; negotiating University-wide policies for general education and individual degree expectations; and adhering to the objectives established by accreditation agencies such as the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). Ranging from practical strategies to philosophical considerations, this roundtable offers insights into the intersections betwe ...
Zoom Meeting Room 1 AMS 2021 ams@am1smusicology.orgThe undergraduate liberal arts degree in music (typically known as the B.A.) entails particular challenges at schools of music that tend to center professional degrees such as performance and music education. In these contexts, the B.A. is sometimes viewed as a less rigorous degree (a "B.M. lite"), and as peripheral to the school's larger mission to produce professional music practitioners. At the same time, the flexibility in liberal arts degrees suggests the potential for the B.A. to both complement a school's professional offerings and to stand on its own as an attractive and valuable degree for 21st-century global citizens. But many B.A degrees are outdated or fail to serve current student populations. Reshaping such programs can help them meet their potential, and given the broad purview of musicological perspectives, musicologists have a special role to play in B.A. curriculum reform.
In this roundtable discussion, a panel of musicologists from various institutions will offer short papers detailing recent, potential, and upcoming changes to their B.A. in Music degrees, with an emphasis on both the processes and products of curricular reform. Panelists will discuss collaborating with colleagues to redefine degree requirements; working within structures that center preparation for professional musical pursuits; adopting inclusive pedagogical practices and incorporating them into curricula; negotiating University-wide policies for general education and individual degree expectations; and adhering to the objectives established by accreditation agencies such as the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). Ranging from practical strategies to philosophical considerations, this roundtable offers insights into the intersections between curriculum reform and equity, institutional politics, shifts in our discipline, and classroom pedagogy.
Following an approximately thirty-minute roundtable discussion, attendees will be encouraged to discuss challenges and opportunities to share issues of curricular reform at their own institutions, with presenters offering advice based on their own experiences.
