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Sandra Graham

  • Professor Emeritus
Academic Division: Arts & Humanities
781-239-5609
Professor Graham (she/her/hers) is an ethnomusicologist who teaches "Memory and Forgetting" (AHS foundation), art music appreciation, African American music, global pop, and music traditions from around the world. She served as President of the Society for American Music 2017–2019 and is now Past President (2019–20). Her book Spirituals and the Birth of a Black Entertainment Industry was published by University of Illinois Press in March 2018, and was named a Choice top academic title for that year. It also was honored with the American Musicological Society's American in Music Culture Award (2019), which recognizes the best writing on music in American culture. Her articles on spirituals and blackface minstrelsy have been published in journals, books, the Grove Dictionary of American Music (2nd ed.), and The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology (revised 2013). With vocalist Chad Runyon she produced and recorded twelve songs by black entertainer Sam Lucas. Before joining the Babson faculty in 2011, she founded the graduate program in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Davis, and had visiting appointments at Davidson College, the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), the Music Academy of the University of Zagreb (Croatia), and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Academic Degrees

  • Ph D, New York University
  • MA, New York University
  • BA, Moravian College

Academic Interest / Expertise

Ethnomusicology; African American Sacred and Popular Music; Black Theater; Musical Theater

Awards & Honors

  • 2020 — Faculty Scholarship Award for Interdisciplinary Research, Babson College
  • 2019 — Music in American Culture Award (book), American Musicological Society
  • 2019 — Competitive Stipend to attend workshop, Editing of Historical Documents, Association for Documentary Editing
  • 2018 — Choice Outstanding Academic Title, Choice (journal)
  • 2014 — Ted Grossman Beaver Believer Award, Student Government Association

Courses

  • Degree Courses 2025

    • CSP 2030 BLACK AMERICAN MUSIC
    • MUS 4620 GLOBAL POP

Publications

Journal Articles

  • Graham, S.J. (2006). On the Road to Freedom: The Contracts of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. American Music. Vol: 24, Issue: 1, Page: 1-29. University of Illinois Press.

Book Chapters

  • Graham, S.J. (2022). Introduction: Music in Black American Life, 1600-1945. University of Illinois Press.
  • Graham, S.J. (2018). Composing in Black and White: Code-Switching in the Songs of Sam Lucas: Oxford Handbook of Music Censorship. Page: pp. 559–592. Oxford University Press. link
  • Graham, S.J. (2013). Brower, Frank: Grove Dictionary of American Music. Issue: 2nd. Oxford University Press.
  • Graham, S.J. (2013). Fisk Jubilee Singers: The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press. link
  • Graham, S.J. (2013). Hyers Sisters: Grove Dictionary of American Music. Issue: 2nd. Oxford University Press.
  • Graham, S.J. (2013). Johnson, J. Rosamond: Grove Dictionary of American Music. Issue: 2nd. Oxford University Press.

Books

  • Graham, S.J. (in press). Spirituals: A Critical Edition 1861–1930: Spirituals: A Critical Edition 1861–1930. Vol: Music in the United States of America, Issue: 37. A-R Editions.

Other

  • Graham, S.J. (2020). The Career of Sam Lucas: American Music (series). American Music Educational Project and KRCB Public TV (Northern California). link
  • Graham, S.J. (2018). Companion Website: Spirituals and the Birth of the Black Entertainment Industry: Spirituals and the Birth of a Black Entertainment Industry. University of Illinois Press. link

Additional Links

Professional Services

  • Editorial Review Board Member Journal of the Society for American Music (2022 - Present)