Sabbatical Report 2020-2021 AND 2021-2022

Message from the Provost

Sabbatical leaves provide faculty with invaluable opportunities to work on scholarship and creative activities that have a significant impact on the faculty's professional development, the institution, and students. Contained in these pages you'll read about some of the amazing work that Fredonia's sabbatical recipients were able to achieve while on leave.

I continue to be impressed by the creative, accomplished faculty that we have at Fredonia!

Dave Starrett, Ph.D. Executive Vice President and Provost

The Nature and Moral Relevance of Harm

Sabbatical Goals:

Dr. Feit’s goals for the sabbatical were to engage with recent philosophical literature on the nature of harm and to write a book that focuses on the concept of harm and its moral relevance. The metaphysics and ethics of harm is an extremely vibrant area of research. Dr. Feit has participated in this research over the past several years and has published several articles that have already been cited fairly widely. Dr. Feit defends the basic idea that an action, or more generally an event of any kind, is harmful for a person provided that it makes her worse off than she otherwise would have been. Harmful events need not cause “intrinsic” evils, such as pain or suffering, for the victim; events that merely prevent the victim from receiving goods, such as happiness, are classified as harm on this account.

Dr. Feit's planned book will consist, in part, of a chapter that will be based on a revised version of his article ‘Plural Harm” published in 2015 where he developed a more complex and sophisticated account of the nature of harm. The book will also make use of revised versions of two other recent articles and the rest will consist of new material.

Sabbatical Accomplishments:

Dr. Feit accomplished what he had set out to do. He read several books and dozens of recent articles and wrote a manuscript with the title Bad Things: On the Nature and Normative Role of Harm. The book consists of an introduction, seven substantial chapters, and a short concluding section. Three chapters are based in part on previously published work, but that work has been updated and woven into the manuscript, the rest of which consists of new material. The book was accepted for publication at Oxford University Press and is scheduled for release in May 2023.

In early 2021, Dr. Feit submitted an edited section of one of the chapters as a short response paper to the Australasian Journal of Philosophy where it was accepted and published:

Feit, Neil (2022) How Harms Can Be Better than Benefits: Reply to Carlson, Johansson, and Risberg, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 100: 628-633.

Due to the limitations of the pandemic, Dr. Feit was unable to present his work during the sabbatical period but was able to give a zoom lecture sponsored by the Romanell Center for Clinical Ethics and the Philosophy of Medicine at UB.

Neil Feit

Distinguished Teaching Professor, Philosophy

Modern Drama Through Reacting to the Past Pedagogy

Sabbatical Goals: Dr. Siegle Drege’s primary goal for her sabbatical focused on research into a pedagogy that was new to her–extended role play through Reacting to the Past, an interactive, intellectual game grounded in history. Dr. Siegle Drege's plan was to then create a Reacting to the Past game centered around modern American drama, developing materials for the classroom, and sharing with colleagues in her discipline.

The secondary goal involved a literature review of creativity and drama-based learning, dynamic learning communities, and contemporary drama to support scholarly projects and her teaching in the next several years.

Sabbatical Accomplishments:

In the process of researching game-based pedagogy, the principles of game design, and then the tenets of Reacting to the Past, Dr. Siegle Drege participated in several Reacting Consortium workshops and conferences including the Reacting to the Past Game Development Conference (July 2020), the Winter Reacting Conference (January 2021), and several online workshops geared around game play. She also attended the Teach, Play, Learn Conference at Indiana University via zoom (June 2021). Participating in a biweekly game design writing group throughout spring 2021 gave her the opportunity for feedback from colleagues at other universities doing reacting game development. In July 2021, Dr. Siegle Drege presented the principles of her game at the Reacting Game Development Conference, receiving further feedback on her project, entitled “And the Tony Goes to….”

In developing the game, Dr. Siegle Drege ended up basing 24 of the 28 individual roles on historical people with only 4 composite roles, so extensive historical research allowed her to make necessary connections between playwrights, directors, producers, and actors in American drama in the early decades of the twentieth century. Dr. Siegle Drege developed materials for the gamebook that included writing the historical, social, and political context for the 1920s-1940s American theater, introductions for the nine plays, information needed for navigating the game, as well as writing 28 individual role documents. In Fall 2021, she facilitated the game in ENGL 319 Modern Drama. While she had previous experience with shorter drama-in-the-classroom role play activities, the

Ann Siegle Drege Associate Professor, English

success of the extended role play was significant. Students became invested over several weeks of game play, elevating student engagement, motivation, and solidifying their interactions as a learning community. In December 2021, Dr. Siegle Drege was able to share the initial results of her work with the campus community in a presentation, “Engagement through Active Learning,” as a part of her lecture for the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Siegle Drege also presented “Igniting Learning through Role Play: Facilitating a Reacting to the Past Game” for colleagues in English at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) annual convention in Anaheim, CA, in November 2022.

In addressing her secondary goal, the focused time researching pedagogical intersections with engagement, creativity, and drama-based pedagogy was productive, leading in part to a book review of A Symphony of Possibilities: A Handbook for Arts Integration in Secondary English Language Arts, published in Montana English Journal, Spring 2022, and drafting an article, “Teaching ELA Methods in Light of Pandemic Teaching.” She attended virtual workshops geared toward supporting teachers with online learning, with her particular focus being ways to address engagement. Dr. Siegle Drege was able to participate in virtual workshops through Folger Shakespeare for teaching Shakespeare online and anti-racist lenses for the plays, as well as attend the NYSEC fall conference and the NCTE annual convention. Part of her secondary goal anticipated attending New York City theater productions of contemporary plays. With theaters closed, her focus became film captures of theater productions and digital theater.

Modern Drama Through Reacting to the Past Pedagogy

Concurrent Encryption and Compression

Sabbatical Goals:

Dr. Arnavut's initial goal was to work on DNA related data to develop a new compression algorithm. While he worked on this topic, Dr. Arnavut worked with Drs. Kocak and Koc on Concurrent Encryption and Compression Project. This was an extension to the Inversion Coder that was developed in 2004 at SUNY Fredonia by a group of Computer Science students, under Dr. Arnavut’s guidance. The algorithms of Inversion Coder were based on his publications in the Proceedings of IEEE Data Compression, in 2002 and the article published in the Computer Journal, in 2004.

Sabbatical Accomplishments:

For secure and efficient transmission or storage, data files are commonly compressed and encrypted. In this work, Drs. Arnavut, Kocat and Koc introduced a cost-effective encryption method for files as a built-in component of an Inversion Coder, avoiding the added cost of employing two separate processes. In earlier work, they showed that preprocessing data with Burrows-Wheeler Transformation followed by Inversion Rank Transformation in advance of the utilization of an entropy coder resulted in an extremely effective general-purpose lossless compression technique. They encrypt the frequency vector of the Inversion Transformation using an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and transmit it along with the compressed data. Since the frequency vector is required for decompression, no further encryption is necessary to secure the compressed file. Thus, encrypting only a relatively small section of data (1024 bytes) containing the frequency vector instead of the entire compressed file results in a substantial reduction in computational cost. They show in this study that the proposed concurrent encryption and lossless data compression technique is effective and resistant to common attacks using various cryptanalysis techniques on image and audio data sets

Drs. Arnavut’s, Kocat’s, and Koc’s preliminary work was presented at one of the top conferences in the area of Data Compression, the IEEE Data Compression Conference held at Snow Bird, Utah in March, 2022.

Their work was submitted for publication in ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications Journal. Currently, Dr. Arnavut is working with SUNY RF on the patent application for their new technique.

Ziya Arnavut

Professor, Computer and Information Sciences

Drs. Arnavut, Kocat and Koc have drafted several ideas for an NSF RIU grant on concurrent encryption and compression techniques and are hoping to submit a grant proposal to NSF in the coming months.

Dr. Arnavut has given two talks on DNA Compression. The first in October 2021 at Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey, and the other in November 2021 at Cyprus International University, Nicosia, Cyprus.

Managing Stress and Flourishing in Music Education

Sabbatical Goals:

The purpose of Dr. Bernhard’s sabbatical was to complete three research and writing projects. The first was a book manuscript, under contract with Routledge Publishing and due by May 2021, entitled "Managing Stress in Music Education: Routes to Wellness and Vitality.” The second and third were research studies to replicate recent work on a national level. Both studies examined variables from the field of positive psychology (gratitude, meaning, engagement, and pleasure) with music majors and music teachers, respectively. Data were collected and analyzed from Fredonia music majors and music teachers in the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA). The two new studies will include data collection from a national sample of university music majors and a national sample of music teachers (using membership lists and email servers of the National Association for Music Education -NAfME).

Sabbatical Accomplishments:

Dr. Bernhard was able to complete the original plan plus extra projects. In addition to numerous conference presentations, he completed six peer-reviewed publications, the final three being finished this semester. Dr. Bernhard also used the time to familiarize himself with new state certification requirements and related Teacher Performance Assessments adopted by the College of Education (to be implemented in his role as coordinator of student teaching for the School of Music).

Publications:

Bernhard, H. C. (2022). Investigating happiness and gratitude among music majors during a global pandemic. Contributions to Music Education, 47, 175-189.

Bernhard, H. C. (2021). Managing stress in music education: Routes to wellness and vitality. New York, NY: Routledge.

Marcetti, T., Bernhard, H. C., Payne, P., & Soto, A. C. (2021). An elephant in the music room: Students’ physical and emotional health. Teaching Music, 28(3), 36-39.

Bernhard, H. C. (2020). An investigation of happiness and gratitude among music educators. Visions of Research in Music Education, 36, 1-15.

Christian Bernhard

Professor, School of Music

Accepted and In Press:

Bernhard, H. C. (in press). Flourishing in music education: Lessons from positive psychology. New York, NY: Routledge.

Bernhard, H. C. (in press). Gratitude during times of uncertainty: Connections to creativities in music education. In C. Randles & P. Burnard (Eds.), The Routledge companion to creativities in music education (pp. xx-xx). New York, NY: Routledge.

In Progress:

Bernhard, H. C., & Reese, J. (Eds.) (In progress). Stories from the trenches: Music educators navigating stress and burnout. Chicago, IL: GIA Publishing.

National Conference Presentations:

Bernhard, H. C. (2022). Space and grace: Using positive psychology in music education. Paper to be presented at the Colloquium for Teachers of Instrumental Music Methods, Loudonville, OH. May 20.

Bernhard, H. C. (2021). Investigating happiness and gratitude among music majors during a global pandemic. Poster presented at the Symposium on Music Teacher Education, Greensboro, NC (via Zoom). September 24.

Bernhard, H. C. (2021) . Investigating happiness and gratitude among music educators. Poster presented at the National Association for Music Education Biennial Research Conference, Orlando, FL (via Zoom). February 26.

Bernhard, H. C. (2021). Practice makes perfect? Gratitude during times of uncertainty. Paper presented at the Suncoast Music Education Research Conference, Tampa, FL (via Zoom). January 28.

Bernhard, H. C. (2021). Managing stress in music education. Clinic presented at the Lakeview Leadership Academy, Victorville, CA (via Zoom). January 6.

State Conference Presentations:

Bernhard, H. C. (2022). Managing stress in the arts. Clinic to be presented at the Arts Services Creative Professionals Exchange, Buffalo, NY. June 3.

Bernhard, H. C. (2022). Managing stress as a music major. Clinic presented at the Fredonia Collegiate NAfME Conference, Fredonia, NY. April 9.

Bernhard, H. C. (2022). Managing stress in music performance. Clinic presented at the Robert Jordan Piano Festival, Fredonia, NY (via Zoom). March 4.

Bernhard, H. C. (2022). Managing stress in music education. Clinic presented at the Suffolk County Professional Development Series, Hauppauge, NY (via Zoom).January 20.

Bernhard, H. C. (2021). Considering music as a major and career. Clinic presented at Hilton High School, Hilton, NY (via Zoom). April 21.

Bernhard, H. C. (2021). Improvising in traditional concert bands and orchestras. Clinic presented at Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY (via Zoom). April 5.

Bernhard, H. C. (2021). Managing stress in music education. Clinic presented at the Erie County Music Educators Conference, Buffalo, NY (via Zoom). January 27.

Managing Stress and Flourishing in Music Education

Spring 2022

Investigating the Neurodevelopmental Impact of Neonatal

Prescription Drug

Exposure

Sabbatical Goals:

Dr. Creeley’s sabbatical goals included organizing and analyzing data for publication. Second, she collected preliminary data to include in a new grant application. Third, she planned to submit an abstract to the Society of Neuroscience Annual Meeting to present at the national conference in San Diego, CA. Lastly, she planned to write and submit an NIH Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA Award, or R15) for a summer 2022 deadline.

Sabbatical Accomplishments:

The sabbatical leave allowed Dr. Creeley to complete several important research projects consistent with the proposed goals and expected results. Dr. Creeley, her colleague Dr. Lisa Denton, and two Fredonia students completed their study investigating information sharing about cannabis use during pregnancy and published a paper:

Catherine E. Creeley, Lisa K. Denton, Cassidy D. Carter, Ezra S. Glatt & Michael J. Scialdone (2022)

Cannabis Use During Pregnancy: A Qualitative Analysis of Online Information Sharing About Safety, Women's Reproductive Health, DOI: 10.1080/23293691.2022.2097035

Dr. Creeley also prepared and submitted an NIH Academic Research Enhancement Award (R15) grant application for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions. Her grant proposal, entitled "Preclinical Research to Investigate the Impact of Perinatal Exposure to Therapeutics" was submitted to the National Institute for Child and Human Development in June 2022. Dr. Creeley also compiled and analyzed data from experiments investigating the effects of sodium valproate exposure on the developing brain using a neonatal mouse model. These results were accepted for an abstract by the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), and were presented as a virtual poster at the SfN Annual Meeting, with Dr. Creeley and her behavioral neuroscience lab students as co-authors:

Nov. 14, 2022, 1:00 PM -5:00 PM

357.12 -Developmental and behavioral effects of valproic acid in mouse models of autism.

*CE Creeley, A Gonzalez, C Mauche, J Walters, L Dixon, M Hardy, M Evans; Psychology, State University of New York at Fredonia, Fredonia, NY.

Catherine Creeley

Associate Professor, Psychology

Spring 2022

Academic Freedom and Teaching Controversy in the

Social Studies Classroom

Sabbatical Goals:

Dr. Dahlgren’s sabbatical leave for the Spring 2021 semester was focused on eight scholarly projects surrounding the nexus of the history of academic freedom and strategies for teaching controversial public policy issues in the social studies. Dr. Dahlgren thoroughly enjoyed devoting more time to this research and plans to share his work in a variety of forums in the coming semesters.

Sabbatical Accomplishments:

Dr. Dahlgren focused his sabbatical efforts on the issues that have driven his research agenda for two decades—the history of academic freedom and strategies for teaching controversy in the social studies classroom. Dr. Dahlgren spent the first few weeks of his sabbatical preparing proposals for fall conferences and presentations. As a result of this work, Dr. Dahlgren presented his research in an online forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and at the American Educational Research Association Convention in San Diego. He had three planned fall conferences, as well—the 2022 New York State Association of Teacher Educators Conference in Saratoga Springs in September, the 2022 History of Education Society Annual Meeting in Baltimore in November and the 2022 National Council for the Social Studies Convention in Philadelphia in December.

For the bulk of the sabbatical leave period, Dr. Dahlgren focused on research projects and scholarly publications. He completed draft manuscripts of the following publications:

Dahlgren, R.L. (Submitted). The potential of educational blogging for teaching controversial issues. Journal of Education.

Dahlgren, R.L. (Submitted). Freire’s dialogic process as a means of facilitating the teaching of controversial public policy issues in urban public school settings. Urbana.

Dahlgren, R.L. (Submitted). A school turned upside down: A review of The Receivership. Rethinking Schools.

Robert Dahlgren Professor, Education

Kuhn, M., Pigozzi, G. & Dahlgren, R.L. (Submitted). Making challenging social studies texts accessible for struggling readers: An intervention. Literacy Research: Methods, Theory and Practice.

Douglass, K.B. & Dahlgren, R.L. (Submitted). “I felt like a teacher in a box:” Ten years of the edTPA Phi Delta Kappan.

Dahlgren, R.L. & Clawson, J. (In press). Safe classrooms: The self-efficacy of high school students participating in a Gay-Straight Alliance student group. Journal of LGBT Youth.

Dahlgren, R.L. (In press). Teaching elementary and middle school social studies in inclusive classrooms. Guilford Press.

Dahlgren, R.L. (In press). “You’re not really my children:” Teachers and the attack on public education. In A. Grunzke and R. Grunzke (Eds.), The female teacher on television. Lexington Press.

Ustunluoglu, E. & Dahlgren, R. L. (In press). The perceptions of faculty members of education regarding the technology-based implementations: Lecture capturing. Journal of Learning and Teaching in the Digital Age.

Classroom continued Spring 2022

Experiences of Transgender Teachers and Teachers

Candidates

Sabbatical Goals:

The goal of Dr. McEntarfer’s sabbatical was to interview transgender and non-binary teachers and teacher candidates to learn about their experiences and needs. She wanted her work to inform school leaders, colleagues, teacher educators, and leaders of teacher education programs about how best to support trans and non-binary teachers and teacher educators. She also hoped that representation of her participants' experiences might offer trans and non-binary teachers a broader context within which to understand their own experiences. Finally, Dr. McEntarfer wanted to learn more about the strengths that trans and non-binary teachers bring to the classroom, as a way of shifting the narrative from a focus entirely on needs and vulnerabilities (important as those are to document) to strengths and opportunities. Dr. McEntarfer planned to write several papers to address these issues.

Sabbatical Accomplishments:

During her sabbatical, Dr. McEntarfer interviewed 33 teachers and teacher candidates from across the US and Canada. She reached these teachers through the Trans Educators' Network, a listserv for trans teachers, and through word of mouth, with particular attention to increasing the diversity of the participant pool in terms of race and gender identity.

Dr. McEntarfer conducted a qualitative analysis of the findings: following Saldaña (2009), she coded the transcripts, categorized the coded data, and developed themes. Dr. McEntarfer then analyzed the themes in light of trans theory and positioning theory, with a particular emphasis on the “positioning diamond” as conceptualized by Slocum-Bradley (2009). She worked with a co-researcher, Matthew Rice, a trans guy who is a high school science teacher, instructional coach, and doctoral candidate at Baylor University.

Together, Dr. McEntarfer and Mr. Rice examined participants' experiences at schools intersectionally, seeking to understand how their experiences differed in gender identity, race/ethnicity, and geographic region. Findings include particular marginalization faced by trans teachers of color and non-binary teachers. Teachers reported wide variability regarding levels of support and transphobia. At schools with some administrative support, more participants reported that colleagues had been supportive. The paper captures forms of support and transphobia experienced by administrators, colleagues, students, parents, and policies/practices.

Heather McEntarfer Associate Professor,

English

It suggests that attributions of rights and duties within storylines may be one way to work toward supportive contexts.

Dr. McEntarfer collaboratively completed the following papers:

Rice, M. & McEntarfer, H. (In press.) “Be Ready for Us’”: Gender-Diverse Teachers’ Advice for School Leaders. Educational Leadership

McEntarfer, H. and Rice, M. (Submitted). Working Within Trans-Affirmative, Anti-Trans, and Cisnormative Storylines: The Experiences of Trans Teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education.

Schey, R., Bavisotto, D., Blackburn, M. V., Cramer, K., DesPrez, E., Lee, D., and McEntarfer, H. (Submitted). Affirming Gender Diversity Through ELA Curriculum and Pedagogy: Integration, Inquiry, and Inclusion. English Journal.

Experiences

of Transgender Teachers and Teacher Candidates continued Spring 2022

Increasing ADA Compliance and Universal Design Elements in Online Learning

Sabbatical Goals:

Dr. McMay had two main goals for her sabbatical leave: to increase her understanding and implementation of elements of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and to create a repository of assignments and templates that could be used by other instructors on the Fredonia campus (and elsewhere). There are 3 main guidelines in UDL: 1) Providing multiple means of engagement, 2) Providing multiple means of representation (of materials), and 3) Providing multiple means of action and expression. The campus already was focusing on increasing the ADA compliance of materials in courses, so the main emphasis became to increase engagement by students in both online and face-to-face courses, and to allow students more choice in how they completed assignments. Dr. McMay would attend workshops and trainings offered by organizations focused on UDL and develop materials and assignments (along with their grading rubrics) that could be evaluated during the semester(s) after the sabbatical. Two main research projects were planned during the sabbatical semester with the expectation that data would be collected in the two semesters following the sabbatical: one focused on requiring videos from students participating in discussion boards in a course, and the other focused on the impact of video format of instruction on successful learning outcomes.

Sabbatical Accomplishments:

The sabbatical was delayed by a full academic year by the pandemic. During that year, Dr. McMay completed two workshops that she had planned to take during the original semester of sabbatical (one through CAST Learning and the other through Novak Education—both of which are leaders in the pedagogy of UDL). In addition, Dr. McMay participated in many more informal trainings and one more formal series of workshops (through Novak Education to better understand how each of the 3 principles of UDL work together to increase student engagement).

At the beginning of the sabbatical time, Dr. McMay presented two workshops for the PDC during the Teaching and Learning Conference in August. One was on how to design assignments based on Universal Design principles, and also how to develop rubrics that can be used to change an assignment to offer students a choice in how to fulfill the assignment (for example, by either turning in a persuasive essay, an audio podcast on the topic, or a full video presentation). The second presentation was on how to use the pedagogical assessment called Muddiest Points to help students self-assess their understanding of a specific topic. In addition, Dr. McMay discussed

Associate Professor, Psychology

how this assessment could be used to help students determine the way they might wish to complete UDL assignments.

Data for the research projects developed during the sabbatical were collected in the last academic year.. The research project that focused on requiring students in an asynchronous online course to make discussion board posts using videos (instead of submitting written responses) indicated that students initially struggled with this aspect of the assignment, but as the semester progressed, students felt more connected and engaged in the course than in their previous fully online courses. The research project that focused on various video formats created by the instructor (picture-in-picture, screen capture w no picture of the professor, and highly edited videos where the professor is either full screen or off screen) indicated that students preferred videos that included the professor, but the picture-in-picture format with no editing negatively impacted students performance on quizzes. This result seems to be due to an increased cognitive load required to switch attention between course slides and the video of the professor in that format. The results of these projects are being written up for publication.

Increasing ADA Compliance and Universal Design Elements in Online Learning continued

Fall 2021

Book for Three Hills Press/Cornell University Press

Sabbatical Goals:

Mr. Ploetz’s goals for his Fall 2021 sabbatical were to complete his research and begin writing a book chronicling the history of the Buffalo’s punk rock music and culture scene. Mr. Ploetz is working with input from the editorial director of Cornell University Press’ Three Hills imprint. A completion date and publication date have not been set yet.

Sabbatical Accomplishments:

Mr. Ploetz conducted extensive research into the history of the Buffalo punk rock music/culture scene, including over 60 interviews with participants, observers, and historians, ranging from musicians such as Robby Takac of the Goo Goo Dolls (who started as a punk band), local legends like members of iconic bands such as the Enemies, the Jumpers, and the Good, scenesters, radio hosts, fanzine editors and publishers, talent bookers, record collectors, fans, and others knowledgeable about the subject matter.

Combining those interviews with more than 50 conducted over a decade before for the Bflo Pnk 1.0 and A Toys Story documentaries (including several interviews with characters from the scene who have since died), Mr. Ploetz has created the largest repository of knowledge on the local punk cultural movement that has helped shape punk culture of Buffalo and Western New York to this day.

In addition, Mr. Ploetz researched local media coverage of the early punk era, analyzing the weekly club listings and concert schedules in The Buffalo News and The Buffalo Courier Express as well as diving into college newspaper coverage at Buffalo State College, the University at Buffalo, Canisius College and Niagara Community College and local fanzines and entertainment weeklies. Mr. Ploetz used Artificial Intelligence-based software to do a basic transcription of the audio and video interviews, which has greatly reduced the editing time.

Mr. Ploetz completed a portion of the book with plans to continue writing throughout the summer of 2022.

Heading back into the classroom, he will be adding lessons on long-form writing, archival research, and interviewing

Elmer Ploetz Associate Professor, Communication

Fall 2021

Sigurd M. Raschèr: Biography

Sabbatical Goals:

The primary goal of Dr. Zumwalt’s sabbatical was to come as close as possible to completing the biography of Sigurd M. Raschèr, pioneer of the classical saxophone, whose Archive resides in Reed Library. Additional plans included preparing unpublished musical manuscripts found in the Raschèr Collection in Reed library for publication, and presenting a lecture-recital related to Raschèr in Germany.

Sabbatical Accomplishments:

Dr. Zumwalt completed numerous chapter drafts covering a large portion of Sigurd Raschèr’s life and career. After reviewing materials in the Raschèr Collection, Dr. Zumwalt realized that several aspects of Raschèr's career still required more research, and he spent appreciable time on that. Additionally, upon realizing how little information was available on the firm that manufactured Raschèr’s saxophone, Dr. Zumwalt made two trips to Elkhart, Indiana and researched the Buescher Band Instrument Company, where the first saxophones in America were made. Raschèr was closely associated with this firm and he concertized on their saxophones throughout his fifty-year career. Dr. Zumwalt has since added a chapter to the book on the Buescher Company and their relationship with Sigurd Raschèr.

In the Reed Library Raschèr Collection, Dr. Zumwalt discovered several original musical scores that were never published. He is currently working with the Raschèr family and the German music publisher Ries & Erler to publish scholarly editions of these works, for which he will write the text and edit the music. As a result of his research, he will perform two previously unknown works written for Raschèr by the English Composer Freda Swain at the Biennial Conference of the North American Saxophone Alliance in March 2023, at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

While Dr. Zumwalt had hoped to give lecture recitals at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, they were forced to cancel their scheduled festival due to lack of funding, so he was able to stay home and continue his writing. Dr. Zumwalt continues to work in earnest to complete his book this year.

Wildy Zumwalt

Associate Professor, School of Music Spring