Staff

Dana Gorzelany-Mostak is Professor of Music at Georgia College & State University. Her research on music and American presidential campaigns appears in Music & Politics, the Journal of the Society for American Music, and the Journal of Popular Music Studies. Her work on America’s Got Talent protege Jackie Evancho appears in the edited volume Voicing Girlhood in Popular Music: Performance, Authority, Authenticity (Routledge) and in American Music. Gorzelany-Mostak is the founder of Trax on the Trail, a website and research project that tracks and catalogues the soundscapes of US presidential elections, and co-founder of “Songs of Political Persuasion: Hearing Music on the US Presidential Campaign Trail, 1840–1918,” a website devoted to the study of 19th century campaign songsters. She has provided her expert opinion for news outlets such as the BBC, Vox, New York Times, The Guardian, Politico, Newsweek, the Washington Post, and CNN. Her recent book, Tracks on the Trail: Popular Music, Race, and the US Presidency, analyzes the official and unofficial musical activity surrounding 21st-century presidential campaigns. Gorzelany-Mostak is a Digital Humanities Fellow (2024), and a recipient of the University Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Endeavors Award (2024), and the College of Arts & Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award (2022) at Georgia College & State University. Gorzelany-Mostak has served SAM in a variety of capacities: as co-chair of the Forum for Early Career Professionals (FECP), media co-editor of JSAM, member (and chair) of the Mark Tucker Award Committee, co-organizer of the Sounding the Nation at 250 initiative, and secretary of the Board of Trustees.

Samantha Lampe recently completed her PhD at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her dissertation, titled “What I Did for Love: Broadway and the ‘I Love New York’ Campaign (1977-1983),” examines the relationship between the League of New York Theatres and Producers and the New York State Government as Broadway became the central attraction of the “I Love New York” Campaign in television commercials and travel packages. Samantha has been a member of the Society for American Music since 2020. Her research has been financially supported by the Scott Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Larry Hackman Residency from the New York State Archives. Samantha has published in Studies in Musical Theatre and in the forthcoming edited volume Rodgers and Hammerstein in Context (Cambridge University Press). Her research interests include Broadway musicals, music tourism, music in urban spaces, and the music industry. An active member of the SAM volunteer community, Dr. Lampe serves as co-chair of the Sounding the Nation at 250 Committee and as a member of the Local Arrangements and Development Committees.