UCI Arts Alumnus Paul David Flood Joins University of Tennessee Faculty

Musicology alumnus begins tenure-track position at the Natalie L. Haslam College of Music

Department of Music alumnus Paul David Flood, M.F.A. ’21, has begun a tenure-track position as assistant professor of musicology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's Natalie L. Haslam College of Music. Flood begins this position after earning his Ph.D. in Musicology from the Eastman School of Music this past spring.

“From learning how to write an effective lesson plan to challenging me to think with music and its actors across history, the music faculty at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts prepared me to hit the ground running in a top Ph.D. program in my field and taught me valuable lessons that still inform my teaching, scholarship, and service today,” said Flood. “Perhaps most importantly, my professors and colleagues at UCI taught me the importance of intellectual community — especially as a New Yorker who was completely new to the West Coast.”

At UC Irvine, Flood wrote his thesis on the music of Danish composer Per Nørgård under the guidance of Amy Bauer, Ph.D., and received the Graduate Dean's Dissertation Fellowship and the Medici Scholarship. He was also an active member of UCI's Queer Graduate Caucus. A specialist in contemporary European music and politics, Flood's research sits at the intersection of popular music studies, global music history and queer/trans studies. His current book project examines the Eurovision Song Contest's role in shaping the liberal secular humanist values that have defined “European” citizenship since the founding of the European Union, and his writing has appeared in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, the Journal of the American Musicological Society and Scandinavian Studies. He is a recipient of the David Sanjek Paper Prize from IASPM-US (2024) and the Conference Presentation Prize from the Gender and Sexuality Studies Section of SEM (2025), and has discussed his research with outlets including NPR and The Globe and Mail.

“I am eager to engage my students at the Natalie L. Haslam College of Music with the same balance of rigor and care that my mentors at UCI Arts cultivated during my two years in Irvine,” shared Flood.

To learn more about graduate programs in Musicology in the Department of Music, visit arts.uci.edu/music/programs.