Anita Davis
Associate Professor of Music Education
Director of the Consortium for Research in Creative Learning
Ph.D., M.M., B.M.E., The Florida State University
E-mail: Anita.Davis@usm.edu
Anita Davis, Ph.D., is an accomplished musician, educator and researcher. As a musician, Dr. Davis led internationally recognized choruses for more than twenty-five years as director of university, high school, and non-profit choral programs. Her experiences as a consultant and adjudicator for music festivals and teacher workshops spans multiple performance levels, particularly those focused on adolescent and adult musical development. This work was influenced through her broad range of study and performance with many world-renowned musicians including Robert Shaw, Joseph Flummerfelt, Wilhelm Ehmann, Fraukke Hausemann, Rodney Eichenberger, Andre Thomas, and Gerald Mack, among others. To her credit as a scholar and researcher, she has numerous publications available through Hinshaw Music, Silver Burdett: Making Music Your Own, Visions of Research in Music Education, Journal of Research in Music Education, and the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, for which she serves as Associate Editor.
Dr. Davis holds a Ph.D. in music education, a Master of Music in choral conducting, and a Bachelor of Music Education degrees from Florida State University and came to The University of Southern Mississippi in 1999 having taught at Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey and Georgia Southern University. At the University of Southern Mississippi she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music education, in addition to consulting and conducting workshops throughout the U.S. for interdisciplinary, music, and arts learning.
Frequently she presents her work at state, national, and international conferences for professional development and contributions to research in systemic educational improvement focused on music and arts learning as central to human development.
Dr. Davis has designed and carried out research studies with external funding provided by the National Science Foundation, the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Mississippi Space Grant Consortium, the U. S. Department of Education (New England Conservatory MIENC), and the Mississippi Department of Human Services, in addition to numerous University awards and grants. Much of her research has focused on teacher characteristics and skills development, including uses of technologies, and student music skills attainment in relation to academic improvement.
As Founding Director of the Consortium for Research in Creative Learning, she leads the university in collaborative partnerships of arts and science programs with state and national education, arts, and science agencies to advance and apply research in learning. Designed to support University faculty with opportunities for interdisciplinary scholarship focused on non-traditional practices, school-based activities are externally supported in response to the urgent national call for improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills embedded in learning activities that are contextual, artful, and meaningful. As a multi-disciplinary, research-based center, CRCL resides in the College of Science and Technology with support of the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.
For more information, visit the CRCL website at http://www.innovativelearning.org.