Sarah Gerk
Director of Undergraduate Studies; Associate Professor of Musicology
Music
Background
Sarah Gerk is an assistant professor of musicology in the Binghamton University Music Department. She researches the role of music in negotiations of race, class, gender, and national allegiance, particularly in nineteenth-century American music. Her publications include an article on transnational encounters in Amy Beach’s “Gaelic” Symphony in the Journal of the Society for American Music (2016), as well as a chapter on Alice Cooper’s relationship with Detroit in the monograph Heavy Metal, Gender, and Sexuality: Interdisciplinary Approaches (Routledge 2016). She has contributed articles to the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music and supplemental materials for A History of Western Music, 9 th ed., by J. Peter Burkholder. Her work has been supported by fellowships at the American Antiquarian Society, the Mellon Foundation and the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School. As a clarinetist, she studied with Yehuda Gilad. Gerk has prior teaching experience at Oberlin College and the University of Michigan.
Education
- PhD in historical musicology, University of Michigan
- MA in musicology, California State University
- BM in clarinet performance, University of Delaware
Research Interests
- Music in Negotiations of Race, Class, Gender and National Allegiance
- 19th Century Music
