About

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I work as an Associate Professor at Dokuz Eylul University, specializing in music education. I received my Ph.D. in Music Education at University of Florida and Master’s in Music at Ohio University. 

My dissertation, Making String Education Culturally Responsive: The Musical Lives of African American Children, examined the violin experiences of African American children at an elementary school in northern Florida. Through critically evaluating my own teaching pedagogy for five years there, and documenting and analyzing the students’ musical experiences in and out of the classroom, I concluded that there was a need to understand students’ musical cultures, identities, informal ways of learning and expressing music and integrating them into the violin classroom. Thus, my students and I explored ways of using nontraditional methods (such as teaching/learning violin through rap, body percussion, and tap dance), and constructed our own activities named “stepping violins.” This unique experience will help me as I navigate similarly diverse student profiles at the university level.

I have published articles in numerous journals including International Journal of Music Education, International Journal of Community Music and Visions of Research in Music Education.

I teach String Pedagogy, Music and Culture, Alternative Approaches in Music Teaching and Learning (Formal/Informal), Social and Philosophical Foundations of Music Education, Qualitative Research Methods in Music Education, Student Teacher Supervision, Turkish-Ottoman Music History, and Arts and Aesthetics.

My research interests are:

·         artificial intelligence and the future of music and education 
·         culture and cognition in music learning, and musical brain,  
·         student centered instruction, culture, identity, democracy, diversity, social justice, 
·         critical pedagogy in music teaching and learning, 
·         philosophy in music education

I have a daughter, and a dog named “Archie.”