BIO
Rachel Brashier is the Director of Music Education at the University of Wisconsin -Stevens Point. Originally from Illinois, she earned her Bachelors in Music Performance and Education at Eastern Illinois University and then taught K-12 music (general, vocal, and instrumental) full time in the Chicago area for over 12 years. She also holds Masters degrees in Musicology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and in Ethnomusicology from the Eastman School of Music, and completed her PhD in Music Education at the Eastman School of Music. She served as a Visiting Professor of Music Education at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, and as an Assistant Professor of Music Education at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. She is currently doing research in the areas of music teacher identity development, informal music learning, and embodied musiking in communities of praxis. Dr. Brashier is interested in curriculum development, and has recently taught music methods courses as well as courses focused on social justice and critical pedagogy courses in music education.
Dr. Brashier is also a contralto and trained Greek Orthodox chanter who performs regularly. She is scheduled to present at the Narrative Inquiry in Music Conference 6 in Boston this May, and has presented at Narrative Inquiry in Music Conferences, the Society for Music Teacher Education Symposium, Mountain Lake Conferences, MayDay, the International Symposium on the Sociology of Music Education, the Society for Ethnomusicology Niagara Conference, the Feminist Theory in Music Conference, and the New York and New Jersey School Music Associations. She is regularly a clinician for school choirs of all ages, and has also conducted clinics for the Mid-Eastern Federation of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians and at the PEAK festival in Upstate NY. Dr. Brashier holds the T. Temple Tuttle Prize (Society for Ethnomusicology). In addition to her dissertation Identity Politics and Politics of Identity: A Semiotic Approach to the Negotiation and Contestation of Music Teacher Identity among Early Career Music Teachers (2019), has published in ACT (2016) and Ethnomusicology Review (2014).
Assistant Professor of Music Brashier is currently doing research in the areas of music teacher identity development, informal music learning, and embodied musiking in communities of praxis. Brashier was awarded the T. Temple Tuttle Prize (Society for Ethnomusicology), and in addition to her dissertation Identity Politics and Politics of Identity: A Semiotic Approach to the Negotiation and Contestation of Music Teacher Identity among Early Career Music Teachers (2019), has published in ACT (2016) and Ethnomusicology Review (2014).
Affiliations
- AIME – Active and Integrative Music Education Conference, editor and board member 2020-present.
- WMEA – Wisconsin Music Educators Association, 2019-present.
- NAfME – The National Association for Music Education (formerly MENC), 1995-present.
- ISSME – International Symposium on the Sociology for Music Education, 2015-present.
- Mayday Group – International think tank of music educators, 2015-present.
- NFGOCM – National Federation of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians, 2003-present.
If you are trying to teach anyone music, first learn their name, care about them, meet them where they are, and believe they can achieve at the very highest level before you gently push them to get there.
Rachel Brashier