Kathryn Rose Alexander

Interests

Research

LGBTQ country dance, music, and cultural practice. Ethnic whiteness in Atlantic Canadian social dance communities. Popular music traditions of North America.

Teaching

Ethnomusicology, gender and sexuality studies, critical race theory, music, dance, embodiment, ethnography, humanities, expressive culture

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

• Alexander, K. R. (2024). Music Note: Music and Gender. In World Music Textbook(p. 5). Creative Commons.
• Alexander, K. R. (2024). Music Note: The Study of Music and Gender. In World Music Textbook(p. 9).
• Alexander, K. R. (2022). The Global Marketplace: Why Global Perspectives Matter across the Disciplines. In Wildcat Perspectives. Creative Commons.
• Alexander, K. R. (2019). North America Regional Entry. In The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture(p. 8). SAGE.
  More info

  This chapter is part of a multi-author encyclopedia edited by Dr. Janet Sturman.
• Alexander, K. R. (2019). Straight to the Heart: Heteronormativity, Flirtation, and Autoethnography at Home and Away. In Queering the Field: Sounding Out Ethnomusicology(p. 16). New York: Oxford University Press. doi:unknown
  More info

  By turning a gaze on queer issues, this volume of essays intends to unmask traditionally unmarked categories (such as straight, white, able-bodied Euro-American) to reveal the privileges, positions, and potential heteronormative biases in the research agendas of ethnomusicology. As the first large-scale study of queer identity politics in ethnomusicology, Queering the Field contributes to a growing body of research that reflects on ethnomusicology’s disciplinary practices. The 25 chapters in the volume offer diverse perspectives on two broad issues: first, ethnomusicology’s normative approaches to musical ethnography (fieldwork, methodology, analysis, transcription); and second, the normative sexual identities, modes of identification, and structurations thereof. We aim to move beyond earlier models whereby musicality is equated with difference and thus understood as queer (per Philip Brett’s invaluable claim in Queering the Pitch). Rather, in this volume, we propose to expand the critical, social, and behavioral rubrics of musicality to include categories of play, performance, masquerade, expression, subjectivity, interiority (and all the concepts, actions, and habits that inform the production, circulation, and study of music and sound writ large). Concepts of normativity will also need to be understood in relation to institutionalization, discipline, canon, and habitus.My chapter uses auto ethnography to explore how heteronormativity is constructed in square dances in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The 7000 word chapter draws on my dissertation research.

Journals/Publications

• Alexander, K. R. (2018). Politely Different: Queer Presence in Country Dancing. Yearbook for Traditional Music, 50.

Presentations

• Alexander, K. R. (2022, July). Werking the West: LGBTQ Country Western Dance Imaginaries. International Council for Traditional Music World Conference. Lisbon, Portugal: International Council for Traditional Music.

Reviews

• Alexander, K. R. (2021. Trad Nation: Gender, Sexuality, and Race in Irish Traditional Music by Tes Slominski(p. 3). Yearbook for Traditional Music 53.
• Alexander, K. R. (2019. Review for The Groove Is Not Trivial(p. 1). the world of music (new series).
• Alexander, K. R. (2018. Review for The Groove Is Not Trivial(p. 3). Ethnomusicology Ireland.
• Alexander, K. R. (2018. Review for The Groove Is Not Trivial(p. 3). The Yearbook for Traditional Music.