Digital Lectures

The Society for American Music is deeply committed to engaging the public with American music research. To uphold this commitment, SAM’s Education Committee sponsors a series of online video lectures on American music topics. Each lecture is between ten and fifteen minutes in length. You can view the lectures here, or on the SAM YouTube channel.




Digital Lectures in American Music



















































 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Year	Author/Title
2026	Philip Gentry Performance and History on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall Lydia Harbach Cantata Nuestra Madre Grande: Singing the Story of Dawson Island
2025	Shelina Brown Queen of Noise: Yoko Ono’s Musical Legacy Peter Kupfer and Lane Harder A Sophisticated Form of Propaganda: Music in Early NFL Films Rami Stucky Go-Go According to Globe: The Venues and Posters of DC’s Official Music
2024	Bianca Jackson Vocal Music of the Deans of Black American Composers Vivianne Asturizaga From La Paz, Bolivia, to Los Angeles, California: The Musical Legacy of Jaime Mendoza-Nava
2020	Esther Morgan-Ellis “Follow the Bouncing Ball!”: Sing-Alongs in Film and Television Sarah Town “Any Lady Need a Man?”: Gendering and Ungendering Transnational Cuban Social Dance
2019	Basil Considine and Elissa Edwards Eliza Eichelberger Ridgely Michelle Boyd The Larks Still Bravely Sing: Musical Settings of “In Flanders Fields” Carol Shansky and Joseph D’Auguste Klezmer: European Traditions Reimagined in America
2018	Dana Gorzelany-Mostak Songs in the Key of President C: Music on the Campaign Trail David Blake Performing Democracy Through Folksong: Pete Seeger in the 1950s Hannah Leland Valses fromSpecter of the Rose: A Hollywood Romance
2017	Katherine Reed Stagger Lee’s Come Out on Top: The Ballad of Stagger Lee Monica Hershberger Making Lizzie Borden Rami Stucky Steve Reich and the Harlem Riots: “Come Out,” 1966