Mary Catherine Stoumbos

Mary Catherine Stoumbos, Ph.D. candidate, joined the Department of Music in 2016 with a focus in Ethnomusicology. Her research interests include the history and current manifestations of institutions that support music education for children, adolescents, and young adults within decentralized funding paradigms. While studying music education ethnographically and historically, she considers public and private cultural policy and the effects of institutionalized racial and economic stratifications. Her ethnographic research is based in Northern New Jersey.

At Columbia, Mary Catherine holds the Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within the Organization of Music Graduate Students and is the Graduate Student Representative elected to the department's Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. She serves as Teaching Assessment Fellow, and previously as Lead Teaching Fellow in 2019-2020 and Teaching Observation Fellow in 2018-2019, through the Center for Teaching and Learning. She also served as Fellow of Academic Administration in 2019 through the Columbia College Office of Academic Affairs. She serves on the editorial board for the journal Current Musicology and on the organizing committee of the Columbia Music Scholarship Conference.

Prior to beginning her Ph.D., Mary Catherine graduated from King's College London with a M.Mus. in Musicology and Ethnomusicology in 2014 and from Emory University with a B.A. in Mathematics and Music with a focus in Piano Performance in 2012.