I am currently a member of the MLA Oral History Committee and the Coordinator of the Midwest Chapter, MLA Oral History Project. I also am a member of several MLA Interest Groups/Roundtables: (Sheet Music, Jazz and Popular Music, and Digital Humanities)

In my faculty role at SIUE, I curate the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive and many fine music special collections, notably the Ruth Slenczynska (pianist) and John Kendall (Suzuki Music Method pioneer) Collections. The Albert Mohr Collection features paintings and drawings of opera stage sets and costume designs used in productions in European opera venues during the early to mid-1900s. The KMOX Collection contains the performance music library assembled by the KMOX Radio Orchestra during the early to mid-1900s. 

My research interests are oral history, incorporating music special collections into the curriculum, experiential student learning, digital humanities, Louis Sullivan architectural ornaments, and St. Louis music and jazz music history. Two of my SIUE art and design faculty colleagues and I just had a peer-reviewed article, “Digital Age Learns From Architectrual Ornaments: Artifacts as Inspiration for Student and Collaborative Art Projects,” published In the NAEA journal, Art Education, Vol. 76, no. 1, pp. 32-43. I also currently teach an undergraduate Honors course, Globalization and Music, which incorporates archival and primary sources.

Enjoy the conference! I also invite those who are able to come see the Louis H. Sullivan Architectural Ornament Collection exhibited on the second floor of Lovejoy Library at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE)—It’s only 23 miles from the 2023 MLA conference hotel! If interested in any of the above, would like to collaborate, or have any questions, please contact me: Therese Zoski Dickman, Fine Arts Librarian / Associate Professor (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville) (tdickma@siue.edu)