- Associate Professor
Biography
Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Native American Music, Women in Music, World Music
Melissa D. Parkhurst, a native of California, teaches courses on World Music, Native American Music, Women in Music, Music and the Mind, and Music History. She holds the Bornander Distinguished Chair position in the WSU Honors College. Before joining the faculty at WSU, Dr. Parkhurst taught at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.
Dr. Parkhurst received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Music and Liberal Studies from Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo, with research on the life and work of Amy Beach. She earned a Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology from University of Wisconsin – Madison, with a thesis on women polka band leaders. Her Ph.D. dissertation, also completed at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, is on the role of music in the federal boarding school system for Native American children.
Her research interests include First Nations music in the Pacific Northwest, how music promotes personal and community resilience, and the role of music in cultural revitalization. She is the author of To Win the Indian Heart: Music at Chemawa Indian School, published by Oregon State University Press (2014).
Dr. Parkhurst serves on the Board of Directors for the WSU Press. She is an Affiliate in WSU’s Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and an Affiliate in WSU’s Center for Native American Research and Collaboration. She is Past-President for the Association for Faculty Women (AFW).
As a faculty fellow with WSU’s Center for Arts and Humanities, Dr. Parkhurst directed the projects “Field Recordings of Nez Perce Singers” and “History of Music at Talmaks Camp.” She co-directs the Olsen Native American Music Festival, a multi-day festival featuring residencies with Indigenous artists, workshops, performances, and works by contemporary Native composers. Parkhurst is a recent LIFT faculty fellow and she successfully piloted a system-wide Mentoring Initiatives project funded by the Provost’s Office. She was the 2021 recipient WSU’s Faculty Diversity Award, and the 2022 recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Award, Excellence in Mid-Career Achievement. She was particularly honored to give WSU’s faculty address to the incoming students at Fall 2021 Convocation.