Erin Bauer is Dean of Arts, Culture, & Society at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, Colorado, where she leads academic programs across the arts, humanities, and social & behavioral sciences. Her leadership work focuses on strengthening academic programs, fostering faculty innovation, building community partnerships, and expanding pathways that connect students to meaningful educational and economic opportunities. She is particularly interested in the role of the arts and humanities in public life and in creating institutions where creativity, inquiry, and belonging can thrive.
As a scholar, Dr. Bauer examines music, identity, globalization, and cultural exchange. She is the author of Flaco’s Legacy: The Globalization of Conjunto (University of Illinois Press, 2023), which explores the global circulation of Texas-Mexican accordion music and questions of cultural identity, migration, and appropriation. Her scholarship has also explored Latinx/Chicanx musical traditions, social justice movements, disability studies, and early modern music history. Her writing appears in American Music, Latino Studies, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Latin American Music Review, Rock Music Studies, and other scholarly publications. She has presented her work nationally, and her research on the international adoption of Texas-Mexican conjunto music received Honorable Mention for the Jaap Kunst Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology.
Before joining ACC, Dr. Bauer served as Chair of both the Art/Design and Music departments and Associate Professor of Musicology at Muskingum University. She previously held faculty appointments at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater and Laramie County Community College. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade teaching math, physics, and music at the secondary level in Texas and California. She holds bachelor’s degrees in physics and music from Colorado College and an MA and PhD in musicology from Claremont Graduate University.
As a scholar, Dr. Bauer examines music, identity, globalization, and cultural exchange. She is the author of Flaco’s Legacy: The Globalization of Conjunto (University of Illinois Press, 2023), which explores the global circulation of Texas-Mexican accordion music and questions of cultural identity, migration, and appropriation. Her scholarship has also explored Latinx/Chicanx musical traditions, social justice movements, disability studies, and early modern music history. Her writing appears in American Music, Latino Studies, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Latin American Music Review, Rock Music Studies, and other scholarly publications. She has presented her work nationally, and her research on the international adoption of Texas-Mexican conjunto music received Honorable Mention for the Jaap Kunst Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology.
Before joining ACC, Dr. Bauer served as Chair of both the Art/Design and Music departments and Associate Professor of Musicology at Muskingum University. She previously held faculty appointments at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater and Laramie County Community College. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade teaching math, physics, and music at the secondary level in Texas and California. She holds bachelor’s degrees in physics and music from Colorado College and an MA and PhD in musicology from Claremont Graduate University.
EDUCATION
2014 Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University, Musicology
Dissertation: “The Spanish Diferencia: Stylistic Analysis and Compositional Influence of the Keyboard
Variation from Antonio de Cabezón to Juan Bautista José Cabanilles”
2010 M.A., Claremont Graduate University, Musicology
2005 B.A., Colorado College, Majors: Music and Physics, Minors: Mathematics and Renaissance Studies
2014 Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University, Musicology
Dissertation: “The Spanish Diferencia: Stylistic Analysis and Compositional Influence of the Keyboard
Variation from Antonio de Cabezón to Juan Bautista José Cabanilles”
2010 M.A., Claremont Graduate University, Musicology
2005 B.A., Colorado College, Majors: Music and Physics, Minors: Mathematics and Renaissance Studies