Elizabeth Massey

Assistant Clinical Professor, FIRE: The First-Year Innovation & Research Experience, Office of Undergraduate Research

Elizabeth Massey is a musicologist and Assistant Clinical Professor in the First-Year Innovation & Research Experience program in the Office of Undergraduate Research. She teaches and supervises undergraduate research as part of her “research stream,” entitled Music & Social Identity. Students working with Massey consider how musical performance can be connected to different aspects of identity to recognize diverse historical voices, analyze how those voices were constructed and often oppressed, and ultimately reflect on how current musical performances affect culture. To make their research publicly accessible, her students curate physical and digital exhibits focused on music-making practices at the University of Maryland. 

Massey is highly invested in pedagogy and the scholarship of teaching and learning, focusing on how to teach threshold concepts and skills that are transferable between fields. Her musicological research focuses on performance traditions, social function, and reception history. Massey received her PhD from the University of Maryland, her MM in Musicology and MM in Basson Performance from The Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University, and her BA in history and music from Gettysburg College.