Syllabi for Diversity in Course Design

These undergraduate syllabi are the winners of the SMT's Diversity Course Design award and together serve as a model for other instructors of music theory in implementing an inclusive music theory curriculum.

About the award

Diversity, inclusion, belonging, and social justice are important goals of the Society for Music Theory. These goals cannot simply be proclaimed; we must all work toward them. There is no better starting point than in our undergraduate classrooms. It is for this reason that the SMT introduces the Award for Diversity Course Design.

This annual award will honor an outstanding undergraduate syllabus that promotes diversity in music theory. The award underscores our commitment to these goals in practical ways: the winning entry (as well as any honorable mentions chosen by the committee) will be posted on the SMT website to serve as a model. Over the years, a range of best practices will emerge that can change what we teach and how we teach it.

Learn more about the award, including the application and award process

Click on a heading to sort by that heading.
Click ⓘ to view authors' acknowledgments.

Diversity Course Design Award-Winning Syllabi
Year Sort descending	Instructor	Course Title	Tags	Syllabus PDF
2021	Tenzer, Michael ⓘ	Musical Rhythm and Human Experience	unlearning, transcription, language, pitch, rhythm, texture, decolonization, africa, indonesia	view
2021	Duinker, Ben and Claire McLeish ⓘ	Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture	hip hop, rap, genre, lyrics, race, gender, rhythm, timbre, linguistics	view
2021	Conlee, Jade ⓘ	Advanced Musicianship & Aural Skills	aural skills, antiracism, hidden curriculum, tokenism, core theory, media theory, jazz, assessment, chromaticism	view
2021	Acevedo, Stefanie and Toby Rush ⓘ	Theory of Music I	Theory I, fundamentals, sound, acoustics, notation, core theory	view
2022	Yu Wang, Anna ⓘ	Critical Methodologies for Music Theory	ethnography, cross-cultural, global, listener positionality, acoustics, Theory I, core theory, notation, analysis, fundamentals	view
2022	London, Justin ⓘ	Theory II: Musical Structures	project-based, psychoacoustics, organology, timbre, rhythm, meter, scale theory, writing intensive, performance, corpus study, theory ii	view
2022	Lubell, Gabriel ⓘ	Z211: Music Theory II	timbre, melody, texture, rhythm, patterns, embodiment, genre, space, non-majors, listening, mode, scales	view
2022	Yust, Jason ⓘ	Music Theories of the World	tuning, mode, rhythm, gamelan, maqam, dastgah, raga, tala, clave, polyrhythm	view
2023	Dodson, Alan ⓘ	Meter & Timing Across Cultures	expressive timing, meter, recordings, transcription, ungrading, world music	view