Justin Patch

Justin Patch is Associate Professor and Chair of Music at Vassar College, with affiliations in Asian Studies, Media Studies, and American Studies. His scholarship bridges musicology, sound studies, and political analysis, focusing on how sound mediates social life and power dynamics.

• Education: BM and PhD from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, MM from Boston Conservatory, and MM/PhD from University of Texas at Austin.

Research interests include music in American politics, sound studies, East Asian art music, and music of the African diaspora. His 2019 monograph Discordant Democracy examines noise and affect in presidential campaigns, while his 2021 co-authored textbook Re-Making Sound provides experiential frameworks for sound studies. Earlier works analyze square dancing as political symbolism in Jimmy Carter’s campaign and anti-war protest music.

Publicly available writing reveals trends in his work: ethnographic studies of soundscapes in post-industrial Hudson Valley religious contexts, critiques of populism’s artistic practices, and explorations of DIY audio-visual aesthetics in progressive political campaigns like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s.

At Vassar since 2012, Patch teaches courses like Music and Ideas and Pop! An Investigation into the Music We Love to Hate. Personal interests include playing guitar, basketball, and walking his dog Simon. No explicit scientific awards are listed in the provided texts, but his work has been covered in The Washington Post and NPR regarding music’s role in political discourse.