Introduction
Shersten Johnson, Professor of Music, teaches the full spectrum of music theory and composition courses at the University of St. Thomas.
Dr. Johnsons interests include contemporary opera and art song, as well as embodied cognition, disability studies and theories of music pedagogy. She has presented her research in the United States, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong and Australia. Her publications appear in journals such as Music Theory Spectrum, Music & Letters, Music Theory Online, Opera Today, PsyArt, Music Educator's Journal, Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy and The Journal of Music and Meaning. She is author of Understanding is Seeing: Music Analysis and Blindness in the Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies, Recitatives and Late Style in Brittens Death in Venicein Benjamin Britten: A Century of Inspiration,"Embodied Rhythm and Musical Impact of Ritualized Violence in 20th-century Opera" in the Oxford Handbook on Music and the Body and Music Analysis and Accessibility in the Music Theory Classroom, in the Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy.
In addition to teaching and research, Dr. Johnson is active in the Society for Music Theory and serves as Chair of the Music Department.
Dr. Johnson received her PhD in Music Theory from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a doctoral minor in Composition, a MM in Composition from California State University-Northridge and a BA in Music from Augsburg College, where her emphasis was in flute performance.