Elisa Macedo Dekaney, associate dean of research, graduate studies and internationalization in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and professor of music education in VPA and the School of Education, was named a 2020-23 Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorship of Teaching Excellence.
A substantial bequest from the estate of Dr. L. Douglas Meredith, a 1926 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, has enabled the University to create the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorships to recognize and reward outstanding teaching at Syracuse University.
In addition to her administrative role as VPA’s associate dean of research, graduate studies and internationalization, Dekaney teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the areas of choral music, music education, music research and world music. Her courses are purposefully developed to incorporate multiple music forms from various time periods and locales. She has designed, implemented and delivered several unique courses, including Music and Genocide; Culture, Music and Food of Brazil and World Music and the Interdisciplinary Curriculum.
Dekaney is the co–founder and director of Samba Laranja: the popular Syracuse University Brazilian Ensemble, which is open to all students across the University. Recently, she has served as the conductor for the Syracuse University Concert Choir and the Syracuse University Women’s Choir. She is an active researcher, clinician and choral conductor in the United States and abroad, and her studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Her my most recent book, “Music at the Intersection of Brazilian Culture: An Introduction to Music, Race and Food” (Routledge, 2021), is an attempt to introduce Brazilian music through a decolonized approach. For her Meredith project, Dekaney aims to unpack the social construction of knowledge through the lenses of critical social justice by re-conceptualizing music curricula and critique practices through students’ agency.
Dekaney’s Meredith term will run from 2021-24.