Degrees:
Ph.D., Yale Univ.
M.A., Yale Univ.
B.A., Goucher College
Professor Woldu graduated from Goucher College with a B.A. in Music, and she earned the M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University. Before coming to Trinity, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Berkeley and she taught at Bates College.
Her scholarly work centers on two divergent fields: French music and culture at the turn of the twentieth century and gangsta rap. In all of her classes—whether they are on American popular music, the music of black American women, or music in France between 1850 and 1930—Professor Woldu encourages students to “think outside the book,” to respond critically to academic writing, and to use the substance of their individual experiences to understand the musical traditions explored.
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American popular music
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The music of black American women
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Women in music
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Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel
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The music of black Americans
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Hip-Hop culture
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Music in France, 1850-1930
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The music of black American women
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The musical aesthetics of Vincent d’Indy
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The politics of French music, 1880-1930
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French schools of music, 1880-1930
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- Woldu, Gail. "'Don't I Look Like a Halle Berry Poster?": Humor and Irony in Women's Hip Hop," in Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Humor, ed. Thomas Kitts and Nick Baxter-Moore, Routledge Press, 2019, pp. 339-346.
- Woldu, Gail. "The Other Boulanger," BBC Proms Guide (July 13 - September 8, 2018), pp. 16-17.
- Woldu, Gail. "Art Songs and Race: The Unique Collaboration of Marian Anderson and Kosti Vehanen," The Musical Quarterly (December 2017), Volume 100, Issue 1, pp. 85-115.
- Woldu, Gail. "Do These Sequins Make My Butt Look Fat? Wardrobe, Image, and the Challenge of Identity in the Music of Black American Women," The Musical Quarterly (2013), Volume 96, Issue 1 (2013), pp. 100-136.
- Woldu, Gail. "Women, Rap, and Hip-Hop: The Challenge of Image." In Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music, ed. Jonathan C. Friedman, Routledge Press, 2013, pp. 171-184.
- Woldu, Gail H., translation with critical commentary. Cours de composition musicale, Volume I, by Vincent d’Indy, University of Oklahoma Press, 2010.
- Woldu, Gail H. The Words and Music of Ice Cube, Praeger Publishers, 2008.
- Woldu, Gail H. “The Kaleidoscope of Writing on Hip Hop Culture,” Notes (September 2010), pp. 9 - 38.
- Woldu, Gail H. “Nadia Boulanger, Gabriel Fauré et le Conservatoire: visions d’une esthétique musicale au début des années 1900.” In Au rebours de Lili et Nadia Boulanger, edited by Alexandra Laederich, Editions Symétrie, 2007, pp. 265-273.
- Woldu, Gail H. “Gender as Anomaly: Women in Rap.” In The Resisting Muse: Popular Music and Social Protest, edited by Ian Peddie, Ashgate Press: 2006, pp. 89-102.
- Woldu, Gail H. “Debussy, Fauré, and d’Indy and Conceptions of the Artist: the Institutions, the Dialogues, the Conflicts.” In Debussy and His World, edited by Jane Fulcher, Princeton University Press: 2001, pp. 235 - 253.
- Woldu, Gail H. “Contextualizing Rap.” In American Popular Music: New Approaches to the Twentieth Century, edited by Rachel Rubin and Jeffrey Melnick, University of Massachusetts Press: 2001, 173 -191.
- Woldu, Gail H. “Au-delà du scandale de 1905: propos sur le prix de Rome au début du XXe siècle.” Revue de musicologie, 2 (1996): 245 - 267.
- Woldu, Gail H. "Le Conservatoire et la Schola Cantorum: une rivalité resolue?” In Le Conservatoire de Paris: des Ménus-Plaisirs à la Cité de la musique (1795 - 1995), edited by Yves Gérard and Anne Bongrain, Buchet et Chastel: 1996, pp. 235 - 259.
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- American Council on Education Fellow, 2005-2006
- Arthur H. Hughes Award for Teaching Achievement, Trinity College, 2004
- National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, 1998
- Three-Year Research Expense Grant, Trinity College, 1997-2000
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