Shenandoah University | Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning

Now in its second year, the SU Scholar Series features short presentations by faculty on their sabbatical projects, recent publications, and work completed as TTL Fellows. 

Join us for these monthly, hour-long events featuring two faculty presentations. Each speaker will present for 15-20 minutes, followed by a dedicated time for Q&A. Afterwards, all are welcome to stay for conversation and light refreshments.

Dr. Short's Spring '25 sabbatical project was to research, analyze, and record little-known Oscar Wilde- related music from UCLA’s Clark archive for analysis and dissemination. The ongoing research project “What’s “Wild” About Wildeiana Music?” explores detailed musical elements of Wildeiana songs, to better understand Wilde’s cultural context and explore how his tour affected music of the American fin-de-siècle. This part of the project included an archival visit, musical analysis, and producing and recording many of the little-known songs surrounding Oscar Wilde’s 1882 lecture tour of America. Resulting musical recordings will be made accessible to accompany digital scans of the originals for online archival purposes, be disseminated in online digital humanities archives, and supplement analysis articles for publication.

While most bassoonists, like myself, focus their careers on the modern version of the instrument, a growing number of players have begun to add the baroque bassoon (the modern bassoon's ancestor) to their arsenals of abilities. Wanting to see what there was to learn, I, too, purchased a baroque reproduction instrument and began to learn to play. This sabbatical project presentation shares how my baroque journey has gone thus far and touches on the implications it has for my teaching and for my own music making. Guests will be treated to a short live performance and afterward will be invited to satisfy their tactile curiosity by holding the instrument and poking its buttons for themselves.