Associate Professor of Musicology


Instruments/Expertise: 20th- and 21st-century popular music, technology; intellectual property

(213) 740-3213 phone
(213) 821-1865 fax
jtdemers@usc.edu
Waite Phillips Hall 304

Biography

Joanna Demers, associate professor of musicology. PhD in musicology (Princeton, 2002); DMA in contemporary flute performance (UC San Diego, 2002). Research interests include aesthetics and the philosophy of art, post-1945 popular and concert music, sound art, and the viability of art during economic crises. Monographs: Steal This Music: How Intellectual Property Law Affects Musical Creativity (University of Georgia Press, 2002); Listening Through the Noise: the Aesthetics of Experimental Electronic Music (Oxford University Press, October 2010). Articles published in Organised Sound, Popular Music, Journal of Popular Music Studies, and the Social Science Research Network. Grants and awards: Alvin Johnson AMS 50 Fellowship (2001); Book of the Year award from the Popular Culture Association (2006); a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Association of University Women (2007-8). Graduate seminar topics: British popular music since 1970; semiotics; music and technology; intellectual property and music. Undergraduate class topics: hip-hop; music video; popular music history. Forthcoming publications include essays on the work of William Basinski, as well as on modernism, copyright, and Adorno.

Professional Experience

Academic Degrees

• PhD, Princeton, 2002; DMA, UC San Diego, 2002