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: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Phone: 601.266.6575

Anita Davis, Ph.D., is an accomplished musician, educator and researcher and Director of the Center for Research in Creative Learning. As Founding Director of the Center, she leads the university in collaborative partnerships between programs emphasizing the arts and sciences and agencies that support arts and science education in order to advance and apply research in learning. Designed to support University faculty with opportunities for interdisciplinary scholarship focused on non-traditional educational practices, school-based partnership 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 from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.

Dr. Davis’ organizational and collaborative skills are founded in her experience leading internationally recognized choruses for more than twenty-five years as director of university, high school, and non-profit choral programs. Her work as a consultant and adjudicator for music festivals and teacher workshops spanned multiple performance levels, particularly those focused on 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. She is, as well, a scholar and researcher with numerous publications to her credit in various outlets including: Hinshaw Music, Silver Burdett: Making Music Your Own, Visions of Research in Music Education, Journal of Research in Music Education, the International Journal of Social Sciences, and the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, for which she served as Associate Editor.

Dr. Davis, Associate Professor of Music Education, holds a Ph.D. in music education, a Master of Music in choral conducting and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Florida State University. She joined the faculty at The University of Southern Mississippi in 1999 having served as an assistant professor at Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey and as Director of Choral Activities at Georgia Southern University. At the University of Southern Mississippi she teaches graduate courses in music education, in addition to consulting and conducting workshops throughout the U.S. for interdisciplinary, music, and arts learning. She has designed and carried out research studies with external funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Mississippi Space Grant Consortium, and the Mississippi Department of Human Services, in addition to internally-awarded grants. Her research interests are focused on school systemic processes, teacher characteristics and skills development, interdisciplinary learning, and music proficiency in relation to academic improvement.

For more information, visit the CRCL website at http://www.innovativeteaching.org.