COURSE CURRICULUM

The Critical Studies in Music and Society degree is structured to provide both academic depth and professional flexibility through close mentorship, collaborative learning, and interdisciplinary exploration. Students regularly meet with a program coordinator and academic advisor who help them select electives aligned with their personal interests and long-term career goals, ensuring that each academic path is tailored rather than standardized. A key feature of the program is the Critical Studies in Music and Society Colloquium, taken across at least four semesters, which functions as an ongoing forum where students engage with faculty and visiting professionals from a wide range of music and arts-related fields. This colloquium exposes students to real-world perspectives on careers in the arts, encouraging dialogue about contemporary issues and professional practices in music industries and cultural work. In addition, students are required to complete at least two advanced seminars that are limited to majors and capped at small enrollment sizes, typically around twelve students, allowing for intensive discussion and close interaction with faculty. These seminars focus on central questions or problems in music and society and encourage students to analyze topics from multiple disciplinary perspectives. The program culminates in a senior capstone project, which may be academic or creative in nature and is designed to reflect the student’s individual interests and professional aspirations under faculty guidance. Career pathways after completing the degree are highly diverse and may include law school, medical school, music business or entrepreneurship, music production, performing arts journalism or criticism, nonprofit arts organizations, and graduate study in fields such as ethnomusicology, music theory, or musicology. Students may also take specialized courses such as Music Cultures of the World, Introduction to Ethnomusicology, Global Perspectives in Popular Music, Music, Gender, Sexuality, Music as Politics, and Music as Communication, each of which explores how music interacts with cultural identity, society, and systems of power while building analytical and communication skills applicable across many professional domains.