Background
PhD, University of Washington
Clayton Dahm joined the faculty in 2023 and presently serves as assistant professor of instruction in music education and student teacher and assessment coordinator at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. His teaching and scholarship are driven by questions related to music’s relationship with culture and the teaching and learning of music that is familiar or novel. These issues are interrogated in the contexts of curricula, culturally responsive and expansive pedagogies, musical enculturation, and the musical cultures of children. His research can be found in journals such as the International Journal of Community Music, Journal of Popular Music Education, Music Educators Journal, Music Research Annual, and The Orff Echo.
Before coming to Northwestern, Dr. Dahm was an instructor at Gonzaga University and the University of Washington. As a former public school music educator, Clayton taught general music, choir, and strings in Kansas, Washington, and England. He began his teaching career in community music spaces in New York. His work has been influenced by experience with Keetman-Orff Schulwerk, Popular Music Education, the Suzuki Method, and World Music Pedagogy.
Clayton currently co-chairs the education section of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM). He has earned degrees in music, music education, and ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago (BA); Teachers College, Columbia University (MA); SOAS, University of London (MM); and the University of Washington (PhD).
Selected Works/Publications
ARTICLES
Dahm, L. C. (2025). Transforming ethnomusicological recordings into curricular resource. The Orff Echo 58(1), 24-31.
Campbell, P. S. & Dahm, L. C. (2022). A social history of U.S. music in schools: The coalescence of research and practice. Music Research Annual 3, 1-32. https://musicresearchannual.org/sdm_downloads/a-social-history-of-music-in-us-schools-the-coalescence-of-research-and-practice/
Dahm, L. C. (2022). Contextualizing the music and politics of Oumou Sangaré. Journal of Popular Music Education, 6(2), 183-192. https://doi.org/10.1386/jpme_00083_1
Dahm, L. C., Flesher, J., Cantarelli Vita, J. & Campbell, P. S. (2022). Families as small-community quarantine pods of sociomusical engagement. International Journal of Community Music, 15(2), 211-229. https://doi.org/10.1386/ijcm_00060_1
Dahm, L. C. (2022). Exploring jeliya: Creative possibilities with a west African music tradition. The Orff Echo, 54(3), 38-43.
Campbell, P. S. & Dahm, C. (2021). Star-songs and constellations: Lessons from the Global Jukebox. Music Educators Journal, 108(1), 11-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/00274321211039492