Lori Burns
Full Professor, School of Music
Joint Chair in Women’s Studies (University of Ottawa and Carleton University)
Member of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and thereby authorized to supervise theses.
Office: Pérez 315Telephone: 613-562-5800, ext. 3435
E-mail: laburns@uOttawa.ca
University degrees
1991 – PhD, Harvard University1986 – MA Mus., University of Alberta
1984 – BA Mus., University of Western
Distinction
Winner of the Pauline Alderman award for a monograph on women and music, International Alliance for Women in Music, 2005 (for Disruptive Divas: Feminism, Identity and Popular Music, 2002).
Field of interest
- Music theory and analysis
- 20th century theory
- Gender studies in music
- Popular music
- Music and text
Courses taught
- Theory and analysis
- Popular music in society
- Seminars on popular music, on gender and music, on music and text.
Current scholarly and professional activities
Co-editor with John Covach and Albin Zak, Tracking Pop (monograph series), University of Michigan Press.
Faculty member, Mannes Institute on Jazz and Pop, Eastman School of Music, June 2008
Member, Board of Directors for the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra
Research
Projects funded by (SSHRC) Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: 2007-10, "Subjectivity, Embodiment and Resistance in Popular Music by Female Artists," co-researcher Marc Lafrance.
2002-2005, "Covering and Interpreting the Blues and Torch Songs: Musical Expressions of Gender, Identity, and Sexuality".
1997-2000, "Representations of Violence in Popular Music by Female Artists".
Selected publications
BooksDisruptive Divas: Feminism, Identity and Popular Music (New York and London: Routledge Press, 2002). Co-authored by M. Lafrance.
Bach's Modal Chorales (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1995).
Articles
"I Got Homies, But in the End I'm Still So Lonely:Men and Masculinity on Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak." (Forthcoming). Co-authored with Marc Lafrance and Alyssa Woods.
"Gender and the Billboard Top 40 Charts between 1997 and 2007." Popular Music and Society (2011), 1-14. Co-authored with Marc Lafrance.
"The Dixie Chicks are 'Not Ready to Make Nice': Re-gaining a Voice through Text, Music, and Images." Popular Music, fall 2010. Co-authored with Jada Watson.
"Cotextuality in Music Video: Covering and Sampling in the Cover Art Video of "Umbrella." In Pop-Culture Tools in the Music Classroom. Edited by Nicole Biamante. (Scarecrow Press, 2010) 233-63. Co-authored with Tamar Dubuc.
"Subjective Perspectives through Word, Image and Sound: Temporality, Narrative Agency and Embodiment in the Dixie Chicks' Video 'Top of the World'". Music, Sound, and the Moving Image (July 2010), 3-37. Co-authored with Jada Watson.
"Vocal Authority and Listener Engagement: Musical and Narrative Expressive Strategies in Alternative Female Rock Artists (1993-95)," in Sounding Out Pop, edited by John Covach and Mark Spicer (University of Michigan Press, 2010), 154-92.
"Embodied Subjectivities in the Lyrical and Musical Expression of PJ Harvey and Björk." Music Theory Online 14/4 (November, 2008). Co-authored with Laura Hawley and Marc Lafrance.
"Analytic Methodologies for Rock Music: Harmonic and Voice-Leading Strategies in Tori Amos's "Crucify." In Expression in Pop-Rock Music: A Collection of Critical and Analytical Essays, edited by Walter Everett (Garland, 2000), 213-46. Second Edition Routledge Press, 2007.
"Feeling the Style: Vocal Gesture and Musical Expression in Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong." Music Theory Online 11.3 (August, 2005).
"Sarah McLachlan's "Possession" (1993): Representations of Dominance and Subordination in Lyrics, Music, and Images," Studies in Music at the University of Western Ontario, vol. 19-20 (2005).
"Meaning in a Popular Song: The Representation of Masochistic Desire in Sarah McLachlan's 'Ice'." In Engaging Music: Essays in Musical Analysis, edited by Deborah Stein (New York, Oxford University Press, 2004), 136-148.
"Authenticity, Appropriation, Signification: Tori Amos on Gender, Race, and Violence in Covers of Billie Holiday and Eminem." Co-author, Alyssa Woods. Music Theory Online 10.2 (June 2004).
"Genre, Gender, and Convention Revisited: k.d. lang's Cover of Cole Porter's 'So in Love.'" repercussions 7-8, 1999-2000, 299-325.
"'Joanie' Get Angry: k.d. lang's Feminist Revision," in Understanding Rock: Essays in Music Analysis, edited by John Covach and Graeme Boone (New York: Oxford Press, 1997), 93-112.
