Jacob Berglin joined the music education faculty as vocal specialist in the fall of 2018. His research interests include access to music education based on race, class and gender; the social and vocal concerns surrounding transgender student participation in choral music programs; and incorporating contemporary a cappella process and practice into the secondary choral classroom. His scholarly writing has been featured in the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Arts Education Policy Review, and the Choral Journal. He has presented his work at state, regional, and national conferences including the Michigan and Illinois Music Educators’ Association Conferences, the Symposium on Music Teacher Education, the College Music Society’s 60th Annual Conference, and National Association for Music Education’s Music Research and Teacher Education National Conference.
In the fall of 2018, Jacob will complete his Ph.D. in music education from Northwestern University, where he mentored student teachers and taught courses in voice methods and a cappella arranging, as well as a graduate course in Music Psychology at DePaul University in Chicago. His dissertation collects the experiences of sixteen current music education majors, reflecting on race and class as it relates to their pursuing a career as a music teacher. Jacob holds degrees from the University of Michigan (M.M. in music education) and Valparaiso University (B.M. in vocal performance) as well as teaching certification from Western Michigan University.
Before entering doctoral studies, Jacob spent six years teaching urban public middle and high school, where his responsibilities included directing choirs, teaching traditional secondary general music courses (piano and guitar) and developing new courses focused on music technology and beat production. He is an active clinician and adjudicator in both classical choral and contemporary a cappella settings.
At FIU, he teaches Introduction to Music Education, Choral Methods, Research in Music Education, and History and Philosophy of Music Education.