Melanie Batoff

Melanie Batoff serves as Associate Professor of Music at Luther College, where she has taught since 2015 after previously holding a position at Baldwin Wallace University. Her expertise spans historical musicology with specialized focus on medieval liturgical practices and global music traditions.

Her educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Musicology, University of Michigan (2013)
• M.A. in Musicology, University of Western Ontario
• B.Mus., Queen's University

Dr. Batoff's research centers on the Visitatio sepulchri, examining how medieval chant, liturgical drama, and manuscript materiality intersected with religious experience and biblical exegesis. Her secondary specialization in ethnomusicology informs her world music pedagogy, where she explores musical identity, transmission, and globalization through case studies across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. She approaches music history as an integrated study of cultural, technological, and institutional contexts.

Her scholarly contributions appear in specialized venues including ROMARD and Cantus Planus proceedings, with forthcoming work in medieval liturgy reference texts. She maintains active engagement with the field through presentations at major conferences like the American Musicological Society and International Congress on Medieval Studies.

Research support includes significant awards:

• Ylvisaker Endowment for Faculty Growth
• Heckman Stipend from Hill Museum and Manuscript Library
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship
• Mellon Foundation funding for advanced manuscript studies

As senior project coordinator, Dr. Batoff mentors undergraduate research while maintaining an active scholarly agenda. Her dual expertise in medieval Western music and global traditions creates unique interdisciplinary connections within Luther's music curriculum, particularly through her exploration of how religious narratives shaped musical innovation in historical contexts.