The DISMUS groups of the SMT and AMS seek to cultivate an ongoing support network to help scholars in their encounters with dis/ability–either in pedagogical situations or in personal-life situations.
We will pair interested individuals (faculty and graduate students) for the purpose of sharing stories, ideas, and information. The program is open to individuals affiliated with either AMS or SMT. These pairings might take the form of traditional mentor/mentee relationships with relatively senior faculty guiding relatively junior faculty or graduate students, or may take the form of partnerships between peers. The support network is fully intended to address both teaching challenges and personal-life challenges.
Please note that the “mentoring” relationships we intend to cultivate in this network are mutually supportive and non-hierarchical. Any views and advice offered solely represent individuals’ opinions and do not represent the policies or views of the SMT or AMS, as per the mentoring policies of the SMT. If you would like to form a sustaining contact with a fellow music scholar who has navigated disability-related issues, contact Anabel Maler (amaler [at] uchicago.edu). We will accommodate requests for confidentiality and specific mentors.
Personal-Life Mentoring
Erik Heine (Oklahoma City University)
Jennifer Iverson (University of Iowa)
Ciro Scotto (University of South Florida)
Stefan Honisch (University of British Columbia)
Yonatan Malin (University of Colorado Boulder)
Kendra Preston Leonard (Journal of Music History Pedagogy)
Steven Rings (University of Chicago)
Marian Kielian-Gilbert (University of Indiana)
Lawrence Fritts (University of Iowa)
Jeffrey Gillespie (Butler University)
Cynthia Folio (Temple University)
Andrew Dell’Antonio (University of Texas at Austin)
Blake Howe (Louisiana State University)
Jon Kochavi (Swarthmore College)
Stephanie Jensen-Moulton (Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music)
Joseph Straus (CUNY Graduate Center)
Anthony Tusler (AboutDisability.com)
Allen Gimbel (Emeritus, Lawrence University)
Laurie Stras (University of Southampton)
Jeanette DiBernardo Jones (Boston University)
James Deaville (Carleton University, Canada)
Pedagogy Mentoring
Kris Shaffer (University of Colorado Boulder)
Erik Heine (Oklahoma City University)
Rebecca Morris (Pilgrim Academy, Houston, TX)
Shersten Johnson (University of St. Thomas)
Janna Saslaw (Loyola University)
Jeanette DiBernardo Jones (Boston University)
Music and Disability at the SMT and AMS 
This is more a query than a response, but this seemed the best place to post it. I’m looking for information on university procedures to provide support for faculty who have to care for a family member with serious health problems. If you are aware of any special accommodations (e.g., financial support, extension on tenure clock, unpaid/paid leave, part-time work) in addition to state provisions, can you post some details (name of institution and a link to specific information would be great!).
Ève,
Here’s CU’s Family Medical Leave policy: http://hr.colorado.edu/lr/leave/Pages/FamilyMedicalLeave.aspx
And info on stopping the tenure clock for family-illness-related (and other) leave: https://facultyaffairs.colorado.edu/a-z-information-guide-docs/adjustments-to-tenure-clock
Hope that helps!
Here is the University of Iowa’s policy on automatic extensions of the tenure clock for tenure-track faculty members who have or adopt a minor child: http://www.uiowa.edu/~our/opmanual/iii/10.htm#101
As you will read, the University of Iowa also makes “discretionary” changes to the tenure clock on a case by case basis for “personal health reasons, the assumption of significant ongoing care responsibilities for a spouse, domestic partner, minor or adult child, or parent with a serious health problem, or because of the death of the faculty member’s spouse, domestic partner, or minor or adult child” among other situations.