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CSULA music department chair receives Fulbright Specialists award
DeGraffenreid to serve as a guest lecturer on music education in Australia
Los Angeles, CA -- George DeGraffenreid, chair of the Department of Music at California State University, Los Angeles, has been selected for a Fulbright Specialists project in Australia hosted by the University of Melbourne, according to the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
A professor of music, DeGraffenreid will collaborate with Australian colleagues in music education, serve as guest editor for a special issue of the Australian Journal of Music Education, and be a guest lecturer at five universities in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.
“It is an honor,” said DeGraffenreid, “to receive an award like this representing the United States to our friends in Australia. Working with Australian colleagues will be a wonderful opportunity to explore best practices in music and education within the U.S. and Australia. In lectures and seminars, there will be opportunities to discuss the contribution music makes to the intellectual and emotional development of children and the value of students learning music in schools.”
DeGraffenreid is one of more than 400 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad this year through the Fulbright Specialists Program. The Fulbright Specialists Program, created in 2000 to complement the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program, provides short-term academic opportunities (two to six weeks) to prominent U.S. faculty and professionals to support curricular and faculty development, and institutional planning at post secondary, academic institutions around the world.
DeGraffenreid is an active researcher examining topics ranging from music instruction correlated to student academic achievement to effective music teacher preparation curricula. He is also the author of Music! Its Role and Importance in Our Lives and Benchmarks in Action: A Guide to Standards-Based Assessment in Music.
DeGraffenreid was previously a music faculty member at both San Francisco State University and California State University, Fresno, where he also served as an administrator in faculty affairs. He also taught elementary through high school instrumental and vocal music in Colorado and California.
DeGraffenreid holds a Ph.D. in music education from the University of Washington, a M.A. in music from Cal State L.A., and a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange activity, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Recipients of Fulbright Scholar awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement. For further information about the Fulbright Specialists Program, please contact [email protected] or consult www.cies.org.
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