More about Molly Doran
Ph.D., Indiana University, 2021
M.A., Bowling Green University, 2012
B.A., Hillsdale College, 2010
Musicologist Molly C. Doran is an Assistant Professor of Music at Wartburg College, where she teaches musicology courses and private piano lessons. She has previously taught musicology courses at Northeastern University in Boston and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. A passionate educator, Dr. Doran finds joy in sharing her love of music history with her students and helping them explore the myriad and exciting relationships between music, people, and society. She has taught a wide variety of subjects, including women and music, Beethoven, performance practice, and writing about music. Her courses invite students to turn a critical eye toward music and music history through engagement with topics such as canon formation, protest, representations of race and gender, and disability. Dr. Doran’s opera club, open to all Wartburg students, extends lively conversations about music beyond the classroom and creates an environment that fosters meaningful connections.
Dr. Doran’s research on representations of women’s suffering in opera combines critical analytical approaches from musicology, performance studies, and trauma studies to demonstrate how operatic performance can signify forms of witness bearing. Her work has been supported by various awards, including a Chateaubriand Fellowship that allowed her to conduct research in Paris, and a David Henry Jacobs International Overseas Musicology Fellowship. Dr. Doran maintains an active presence in the scholarly world, presenting her research at major conferences such as the conference of the American Musicological Society, the Transnational Opera Studies Conference, and the conference of the Nineteenth-Century French Studies Association. She has several publications in progress or forthcoming for various journals and publishers, including the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, the Journal of Musicology, and Oxford Bibliographies.
In addition to her work as a musicologist, Dr. Doran has years of experience as a pianist and pedagogue, teaching large studios in Bloomington, Indiana, and the Greater Boston area and working as an accompanist and collaborator with choirs, vocalists, and instrumentalists. She enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for music with piano students of all ages and abilities, and always teaches with the goal of inspiring and encouraging her students to adopt a growth mindset.
Dr. Doran holds a PhD from Indiana University, an MM in music history from Bowling Green State University, and a BA in music with a focus on piano performance and collaboration from Hillsdale College. She lives in Cedar Falls with her husband, Nathan, and her children, Vivienne and Jack. Outside of music, she enjoys taking her children on adventures, laughing with her siblings, visiting modern art museums, listening to feminist podcasts, and exploring new cities, among many other things.
M.A., Bowling Green University, 2012
B.A., Hillsdale College, 2010
Musicologist Molly C. Doran is an Assistant Professor of Music at Wartburg College, where she teaches musicology courses and private piano lessons. She has previously taught musicology courses at Northeastern University in Boston and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. A passionate educator, Dr. Doran finds joy in sharing her love of music history with her students and helping them explore the myriad and exciting relationships between music, people, and society. She has taught a wide variety of subjects, including women and music, Beethoven, performance practice, and writing about music. Her courses invite students to turn a critical eye toward music and music history through engagement with topics such as canon formation, protest, representations of race and gender, and disability. Dr. Doran’s opera club, open to all Wartburg students, extends lively conversations about music beyond the classroom and creates an environment that fosters meaningful connections.
Dr. Doran’s research on representations of women’s suffering in opera combines critical analytical approaches from musicology, performance studies, and trauma studies to demonstrate how operatic performance can signify forms of witness bearing. Her work has been supported by various awards, including a Chateaubriand Fellowship that allowed her to conduct research in Paris, and a David Henry Jacobs International Overseas Musicology Fellowship. Dr. Doran maintains an active presence in the scholarly world, presenting her research at major conferences such as the conference of the American Musicological Society, the Transnational Opera Studies Conference, and the conference of the Nineteenth-Century French Studies Association. She has several publications in progress or forthcoming for various journals and publishers, including the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, the Journal of Musicology, and Oxford Bibliographies.
In addition to her work as a musicologist, Dr. Doran has years of experience as a pianist and pedagogue, teaching large studios in Bloomington, Indiana, and the Greater Boston area and working as an accompanist and collaborator with choirs, vocalists, and instrumentalists. She enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for music with piano students of all ages and abilities, and always teaches with the goal of inspiring and encouraging her students to adopt a growth mindset.
Dr. Doran holds a PhD from Indiana University, an MM in music history from Bowling Green State University, and a BA in music with a focus on piano performance and collaboration from Hillsdale College. She lives in Cedar Falls with her husband, Nathan, and her children, Vivienne and Jack. Outside of music, she enjoys taking her children on adventures, laughing with her siblings, visiting modern art museums, listening to feminist podcasts, and exploring new cities, among many other things.