Bio

Kris Shaffer, Ph.D. (Yale University, 2011), is an Instructional Technology Specialist and Adjunct Instructor of Computer Science and Digital Studies at the University of Mary Washington. He is also a Contributing Editor for Hybrid Pedagogy and the lead author and editor of Open Music Theory ― an open-source, interactive textbook for undergraduate music theory courses.

Kris is a data scientist with a background in computational musicology, a digital media specialist, a software developer, and a published author. Recently, he has been developing open-source software and analytics tools for education, particularly in the context of critical digital pedagogy, open educational resources (OER), and UMW’s Domain of One’s Own initiative. His latest software releases include Peasy, a simple platform for online publishing that has OER in mind, and Hypothes.is Aggregator, a WordPress plugin that collects hypothes.is annotations from a user or tag and automatically publishes them to a page on a WordPress site. Kris’s digital humanities research focuses on statistical analysis of music and text using computational methods. See Kris’s GitHub profile and the CorpusMusic GitHub organization for current and recent projects.

Kris’s written work appears in Hybrid Pedagogy, Empirical Musicology Review, Digital Humanities Now, Music Theory Online, Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy (for which he served as coordinating editor), and Educating Modern Learners. He has presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, Emerging Technologies for Online Learning, THATCamp Southeast, Yale University, the University of Colorado–Boulder, the University of Texas–Austin, the University of Delaware, and numerous regional conferences in music theory. Kris has also written on technology for Linux Journal and the Open Source Technology Group.

Kris has received fellowships and funding from Charleston Southern University, Yale University, and the Paul Sacher Foundation for archival study in the Foundation’s Ligeti Collection.

From 2005 to 2008, Kris served as the editor of Am Steg, an online community and resource for young music theorists and composers, which included co-authoring a blog on music cognition and co-hosting a podcast interviewing composers, theorists, and discussing significant topics for graduate students in music.

Kris is also an active performer and church musician. He most recently has freelanced in the Charleston area, performing with the Charleston Symphony, Opera Charleston, the Savannah Philharmonic, North Charleston Pops, and popular artists such as Jay Clifford. From 2008 to 2011, he directed the Sunday morning music ministry at Trinity Baptist Church in New Haven, Conn. He has also performed with the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra (Williamstown, Mass.), the Illinois Symphony (Springfield, Ill.), and the Green Bay Symphony (Wis.).

Kris previously held the positions of Instructor of Music Theory (and adjunct instructor of psychology and computer science) at the University of Colorado–Boulder and Assistant Professor of Music at Charleston Southern University.

In addition to the Ph.D., Kris holds a Master of Philosophy and a Master of Arts in music theory from Yale University, a Master of Music in orchestral performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts, and a Bachelor of Music in performance (with an honors thesis in music theory) from Lawrence University in Wisconsin.

He also knows how to drive a Zamboni.