51ĀŅĀ×

Elizabeth Sayrs serves as a professor of music theory, teaching a range of courses from the undergraduate theory and aural skills core to graduate seminars. She has presented her work on 19th-century music, cognitive linguistics and music, music theory pedagogy, and gender studies and music at numerous regional and national conferences. Her research has appeared inā€ÆCollege Music Symposium,ā€ÆMusic Theory Online,ā€ÆMusic Theory Spectrum, the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, and theā€ÆJournal of Schenkerian Studies. In addition, the book chapter ā€œPlaying the ā€˜Science Cardā€™: Science as Metaphor in the Practice of Music Theory,ā€ with co-author Gregory Proctor, was published in What Kind of Theory is Music Theory? Epistemological Exercises in Music Theory and Analysis, edited by Per F. Broman and Nora Engebretsen. Her interactive e-text,ā€ÆMFun: Music Fundamentalsā€Æwas published in 2012, and she has served on the editorial board and as editor of the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy. 

Prior to her appointment to the 51ĀŅĀ× faculty in 2004, Dr. Sayrs served on the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Valparaiso University; the Ohio State University; and the University of Saskatchewan, where she was awarded the Dwaine Nelson Teaching Award. In 2007, she received the 51ĀŅĀ× School of Music Distinguished Teaching Award. She has previously served as the Dean of University College and Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Student Success, Interim Dean of the College of Fine Arts, and Executive Vice President and Provost at 51ĀŅĀ×, with a focus on public higher education as an engine of social and economic mobility and equity. 

She received the B.A. in Music from Wellesley (Katharine Malone Scholar), the M.A. in Music Theory at the Eastman School of Music (Beinecke Scholarship, Sproull Fellow), and the Ph.D. in Music Theory from Ohio State (Presidential Dissertation Fellow).