2. Employee Directory
  3. John Spilker, Ph.D.
  2. Employee Directory
  3. John Spilker, Ph.D.
John Spilker, Ph.D.

John Spilker, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Music
Department
Music, Gender Studies, & Interdisciplinary Studies
Office location

Rogers Fine Arts Building, Rm. 304 (top floor, across from the elevator)

Office hours

By appointment (to honor that your schedule is complicated) during these times:

  • MW 11:30–1:40pm
  • F 11:30-1pm
  • Please talk with me after class to schedule an appointment at one of these or another time.

Feel free to stop anytime. If I'm in my office, I'm here to help you.

Email
jspilke2 [at] NebrWesleyan.edu
Phone

(402) 465-2291

“The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. ...we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom. ... It affirms healthy self-esteem in students as it promotes their capacity to be aware and live consciously. It teaches them to reflect and act in ways that further self-actualization, rather than conformity to the status quo.” —bell hooks

Background

Black lives matter! Black, brown, and indigenous lives are a human rights issue, not a partisan political debate. What can we do together to take the next step to learn about the legacy of racisms and white supremacy and transform our communities? History is not a thing of the past…it built the present...it thrives today. I pledge to take action to achieve equity through policy change. I pledge to learn from and follow the antiracist leadership of people of color. I’m learning how to see and disrupt: 1. my racisms, 2. my active participation in and complicity with “white supremacy culture” (a culture that privileges white people), 3. my socialization and choices to remain in segregated white spaces established by U.S. law, and 4. the debilitating and deadly impact of the “imperialist capitalist white-supremacist patriarchy” (interlocking systems of oppression). Lifelong learning, uncomfortable inner work, and accountability can help me recover from my incentivized historical, social, and political illiteracy and deeply embedded dominance. Together, we can decenter whiteness and focus on black voices, experiences, perspectives, and achievements.

Education

Ph.D., Musicology, The Florida State University, 2010
Certificate in Early Music, The Florida State University, 2008
M.M., Musicology, The Florida State University, 2006
B.A., Music, Brigham Young University, 2004

Courses taught

Senior Capstone Seminar (MUS 4980): Speaking Instructive

Music History 1: Gender Equity (MUS 2830/3830): Gender Thread, DEI-US instructive, Discourse instructive, Writing instructive

Music History 2: Racial Equity (MUS 2860/3860): Power Thread, DEI-US instructive, Discourse instructive, Writing instructive

World Music Cultures (MUS 2810): Identity Thread, DEI-Global instructive, Discourse instructive, Experiential–Exploratory

Resilience & Wellbeing (MUS 2750): Human Health & Disease Thread, DEI-US instructive, Discourse instructive

Soundtrack of Life (MUS 1820): Chaos Thread, DEI-US instructive, Discourse instructive

Sex and the Arts (GEND 2850): Chaos Thread, DEI-US instructive, Discourse instructive, Experiential–Intensive

Study Abroad Course to Cuba (in 2017, together with Dr. Susan Wortmann, sociology & gender studies)

Archway Seminars (IDS 1010):

  • 2020: Lynching: Honesty and Racial Healing (Sherrilyn Ifill)
  • 2019: Racism & Mass Incarceration (Bryan Stevenson)
  • 2018: Rising Strong (Brené Brown)
  • 2017: Dead Poets Society & Vocation
  • 2016: Ru Paul's Drag Race & Self-Acceptance
  • 2015: Courage, Compassion, & Connection (Brené Brown)
  • 2014: Social Media and Wellbeing
  • 2012 & 2013: Musicals as a Platform for Taboo Sexual Topics

Justice: An Introductory Experience (IDS 1300)

Music History II: Environment (MUS 3840)

Film Music

American Music

Prior to his arrival at NWU, Dr. Spilker taught undergraduate and graduate courses in music history, research methods, and world music at Oklahoma State University and undergraduate courses in music history, analysis of music literature, and music appreciation at The Florida State University.

Research and academic interests

Overarching Interests: Intersectional Equity, Well-being, Nonviolence, Teaching & Learning, Curriculum, Historiography

Curriculum Revision, Project-Based Learning, Critical & Inclusive Pedagogies, Adaptive Leadership

  • Article: “Adventures in ‘Survey Adjacent’ Music History Courses,” Musicology Now (16 November 2017). 

Care/Equity Pedagogy, Wellbeing, Vocation

  • Book: Colleen Renihan, John Spilker, Trudi Wright, eds. Sound Pedagogy: Radical Care in Music. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2024.
    • Essay: "Integrating Well-being and Intersectional Equity across a Revised Music History and Culture Curriculum," in Sound Pedagogy.
    • Essay: "Radical Care" (co-authored with Colleen Renihan an Trudi Wright) in Sound Pedagogy.
    • Essay: "Care for Now" (co-authored with Colleen Renihan an Trudi Wright) in Sound Pedagogy.
  • Essay: Andrew Granade with Colleen Renihan, John Spilker, Trudi Wright, "Sound Pedagogy in Music History" Bulletin of the Society for American Music 50/1 (February 2024): 3–6.
  • Essay: "Transdisciplinary Antiracism Research and Teaching as a Foundation for Revising Music Coursework," in Teaching Difficult Topics: Reflections from the Undergraduate Music Classroom, ed. by Laura Moore Pruett and Olivia Lucas. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, [forthcoming September 2024].
  • Essay: "Antiracism as a Pedagogy of Care and Repair," in Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in the Music Classroom, ed. by Kristy Swift and Kimber Andrews. New York: Routledge Press. [forthcoming 2025]
  • Essay: “Finding Music in Research on Racial Violence in the United States.” In Open Access Musicology, vol. 3, ed. by Daniel Barolsky and Trudi Wright. Amherst, MA: Lever Press. [under review]
  • Essay: Colleen Renihan, John Spilker, Trudi Wright, "Community, Collaboration, and Care in Practice" Journal of Music History Pedagogy [under review].
  • Webinar: "The Transformative Power of Difficult Conversations," August 2023, The American Societies for Crop Science, Soil Science, and Agronomy.
  • Book Review: "Just Vibrations by William Cheng" Journal of the Society for American Music 13/1 (2019): 110–113.

U.S. Ultramodernism & Dissonant Counterpoint

  • Article: "The Origins of Dissonant Counterpoint: Henry Cowell's Unpublished Notebook" Journal of the Society for American Music 5/4 (2011): 481–533.
  • Article: “The Curious Afterlife of Dissonant Counterpoint: Jeanette B. Holland’s Class Notes from Henry Cowell’s 1951 Advanced Music Theory Course,” American Music 30/4 (2011): 405–25.
  • Book Review: "Henry Cowell: A Man Made of Music by Joel Sachs," American Music 32/1 (2014): 117–19.
  • Book Review: "The New York Composers' Forum Concerts by Melissa J. de Graaf," Journal of the Society for American Music 10/4 (2016): 511–14.
  • Book Review: "Johanna Beyer by Amy C. Beal," Journal of the Society for American Music 12/3 (2018): 354–57.

King David's Laments for Absalom and Jonathan

  • Article: “Oh My Son!: The Musical Origins and Function of King David’s Lament,” College Music Symposium 49-50 (2009–2010): 410–33.
  • Essay: “Desperately Seeking Absalom and Jonathan: A Re-Evaluation of Seventeenth-Century English Anthems Based on King David’s Laments,” in Essays in Honor of Dr. Jeffery T. Kite-Powell, ed. by Allen Scott (Ann Arbor, MI: Steglein Press, 2012): 264–90.

Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Grants

Dr. Spilker has presented his research at the International Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference, the International Association of Music Libraries, American Musicological Society, the Society for American Music, the Society for Music Theory, the College Music Society, the American Culture Association, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Service interests

Dr. Spilker is the chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Society for American Music (2023–2025). He was the faculty co-coordinator for NWU’s Academy for the Assessment of Student Learning (2014–2018), a project sponsored by the Higher Learning Commission. He chaired the Pedagogy Study Group (2015–2017) for the American Musicological Society. He was the founding chair of the Pedagogy Interest Group (2014–2016) and Forum for Early-Career Professionals (2011–2015) for the Society for American Music. He served on the editorial board for the Journal of Music History Pedagogy (2015–2017) and co-organized the annual Teaching Music History Conference in 2016 and 2017. Informed by his experiences working as the faculty co-coordinator for New Student Programs, his teaching approach honors the rich connections between wellbeing, vocation, and personal development alongside intellectual development.

Professional and community affiliations, certifications and awards

Awards & Honors:

Certifications:

Affiliations: