Carol J. Oja (born 1953 in
Hibbing, Minnesota
Hibbing is a city in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 16,214 at the 2020 census. The city was built on mining the rich iron ore of the Mesabi Iron Range and still relies on that industrial activity today. At th ...
) is a
musicologist
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...
and scholar of
American Studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory.
Schol ...
.
Biography
Since 2003, she has held the post of William Powell Mason Professor at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. She has served as the Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence with the New York Philharmonic.
Her previous appointments have been at the
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III ...
(1997–2003) and the
City University of New York (1988–97), where she was professor of music at
Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, as well as director of the Institute for Studies in American Music (1993–97). She attended
St. Olaf College (B.A.), the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...
(M.A.), and the Graduate School of the
City University of New York (Ph.D.).
Her main fields of study include 20th-century
American modernism, musical theater, and cross-cultural composition, and her work positions composers and their music within broad historical contexts. She often explores sites of musical intersection and
hybridity, whether having to do with race, genre, cultural hierarchy, or geographic origin, and she probes institutional frameworks for music-making, as well as patronage (especially by women). The composers she has written about include Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, George Gershwin, Colin McPhee, Ruth Crawford Seeger, William Grant Still, and Virgil Thomson.
Oja was president of the Society for American Music (2003–05) and has chaired the
Pulitzer Prize Committee in Music twice.
Together with Judith Clurman, she directed the Harvard festival, “Leonard Bernstein: Boston to Broadway” in 2006.
Oja married musicologist and
jazz pianist
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instru ...
Mark Tucker, author of ''Ellington: The Early Years'' and ''The Duke Ellington Reader''.
Together with her husband and
Lucius Wyatt (
Prairie View A&M University) she established the Cultural Diversity Committee of the
American Musicological Society
The American Musicological Society (AMS) is a musicological organization which researches, promotes and produces publications on music. Founded in 1934, the AMS was begun by leading American musicologists of the time, and was crucial in legitim ...
. Tucker died in 2000.
The Mark Tucker Award of the Society for American Music is named after him.
Oja established the Mark Tucker Fund for Jazz Research Materials at the
Center for Black Music Research.
In February 2022, Oja was one of 38 Harvard faculty to sign a letter to the ''
Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than ...
'' questioning Harvard University for its lack of transparency concerning the case of Professor
John Comaroff
John L. Comaroff (born 1 January 1945) is Professor of African and African American Studies and of Anthropology, Oppenheimer Fellow in African Studies at Harvard University. He is recognised for his study of African and African-American soci ...
, who had been found to have violated the university's sexual and professional conduct policies. After students filed a lawsuit with detailed allegations of Comaroff's actions and the university's failure to respond, Oja was one of several signatories to say that she wished to retract her signature.
Awards and honors
Oja is recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lowens Book Award from the
Society for American Music
The Society for American Music (SAM) was founded in 1975 and was first named the Sonneck Society in honor of Oscar George Theodore Sonneck, early Chief of the Music Division in the Library of Congress and pioneer scholar of American music. The S ...
, three separate ASCAP-Deems Taylor Book Awards, and an award for “Best Reference Book” from the Music Library Association. She also received the Everett S. Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Books
Her principal books include:
* ''Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U.S. Music in the 21st Century,'' edited with Charles Hiroshi Garrett (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021). Open-access: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11374592.
* ''Out of Bounds: Ethnography, History, Music; Essays in Honor of Kay Kaufman Shelemay,'' edited with Ingrid T. Monson and Richard K. Wolf (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
2017.
* ''Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War'' (2014)
* ''Crosscurrents: American and European Music in Interaction, 1900-2000'', edited with Felix Meyer,
Wolfgang Rathert
Wolfgang Rathert (born 17 July 1960) is a German musicologist born in Minden.
Life and career
Born in Minden, Rathert passed the C-examination as church musician during his school time and acquired the Abitur at the Herder-Gymnasium Minden. ...
, and Anne C. Shreffler (2014)
* ''Aaron Copland and His World'', edited with Judith Tick (2005)
* ''Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s'' (2000)
* ''Colin McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds'' (1990)
* ''A Celebration of American Music: Words and Music in Honor of H. Wiley Hitchcock'', edited with Richard Crawford and R. Allen Lott (1990)
* ''American Music Recordings: A Discography of 20th-Century U.S. Composers'' (1982)
* ''Stravinsky in "Modern Music" (1924–1946)'' (1982)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oja, Carol J.
1953 births
Living people
Harvard University faculty
People from Hibbing, Minnesota
Brooklyn College faculty
CUNY Graduate Center faculty
St. Olaf College alumni
University of Iowa alumni
CUNY Graduate Center alumni
College of William & Mary faculty
20th-century American musicologists
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American writers
21st-century American musicologists
21st-century American women writers
American women musicologists