Doctoral Student Adam Shoaff Earns University of Cincinnati Dean's Fellowship

Meet Adam Shoaff, recipient of a University of Cincinnati Dean's Fellowship:

What is your undergraduate degree in?

• Instrumental Music Education from Indiana University

What is your graduate program of study?

• PhD, Musicology

Describe your research in one sentence.

• I am researching the aesthetic inspirations and values that shaped German opera in the 1760s and 1770s through an examination of music journals, music manuscripts, and opera theater records.

What is the most interesting part about your research that no one understands?  

• There is so much wonderful music in this largely overlooked repertoire. Many pieces are well-crafted, musically interesting, dramatically compelling, and just plain beautiful. Since it is not available in modern editions, and in only a few cases recorded on CD or DVD, I get to enjoy exploring a musical territory that I have never experienced before and most people know nothing about. I want my research to bring more attention to works that I think could be very enjoyable to audiences. I would also add that the operas I am researching were performed for public (i.e., not aristocratic) audiences, and they grapple with issues of gender and class that are still just as relevant and subversive today as they were in the eighteenth century. Okay, I guess that counts as two interesting parts of my research, but I couldn't stop at one.

What is the best part of grad school?

• The best part of graduate study has been the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of how music has changed, what has shaped its evolution, and how it reflects the values of a society. Along with this, besides learning about music history itself, I have also had the opportunity to learn how to research music history. I now have an understanding of how music scholarship works, what has been done in the past, and what the research trends are today. I feel that this process of learning how to research fosters one's ability to think critically about a problem, to take it apart and consider the possibilities of its various pieces.  

What is the worst part of the grad school?

• The worst part of grad school is worrying about money once the financial assistance runs out. By comparison, course work, exams, and the dissertation are a cakewalk. With regard to the PhD in musicology, the University of Cincinnati currently offers a three-year fellowship for a degree that simply can't be finished in three years. When my colleagues and I finish our fellowships, we must then either compete with each other for a limited number of research grants, or look for outside work to pay the bills, which will inevitably delay the completion of our degrees. In fact, for me to win this Dean's Fellowship, I had to be selected ahead of two equally deserving friends in my department who also would have liked to have this funding. That's the worst part of grad school.

What does the fellowship mean to you?

• This much appreciated fellowship means that I will be able to make consistent and speedy progress toward the completion of my degree. Instead of spending my time applying for grants or working an outside job, I will be able to make dissertation work my full-time job. I'm very much looking forward to that.