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Landmark Cases in Special Education Law

Landmark cases in special education law.

In the United States legal system, judicial decisions play an important role in determining what a particular law means. This type of law is known as “Case Law.” Case Law is developed when courts are asked to resolve disputes that are occurring between two or more parties, and the court must interpret what the law means in a given situation. Through this process, the meaning of phrases such as “Least Restrictive Environment” and “Meaningful Educational Benefit” evolve as various courts decide cases and set precedents. A precedent is a rule established in a previous court case that is either binding or persuasive depending on which court issued the decision. Below are some of the cases that are important to special education law and the precedents they have created.

U.S. Supreme Court Decisions

Cases decided by the United States Supreme Court are binding on courts all across the country. As a result, when the Supreme Court interprets a statute or makes a determination in a particular case, all lower courts must use that determination when deciding cases. In some instances, however, the Supreme Court leaves room in a decision that allows individual states to make their own determination – for example, in 2005 the Supreme Court decided that the party requesting a due process hearing under the IDEA has the burden of persuasion to establish his or her claims, but the Court expressly declined to determine whether states may legislate the burden of proof. In 2008, New Jersey enacted a law placing the burden of proof and production in all requests for a due process hearing, whether filed by the parent or the school district, on the school district.

• Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483 (1954) – In this landmark civil rights decision, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that a separate education for African-American children was not an equal education, concluding that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place and that ‘separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.'” This decision provided parents of children with disabilities and disability rights activists the constitutional foundation to press for equal educational opportunities for all children, including those with developmental and other disabilities.
• Board of Education of Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley, 458 U.S. 176 (1982) – This was the first special education case decided by the Supreme Court. In this case, the Court held that an IEP must be reasonably calculated for a child to receive educational benefit, but the school district is not required to provide every service necessary to maximize a child’s potential.
• Irving Independent Sch. Dist. v. Amber Tatro, 468 U.S. 883 (1984) – The Court held that provision of clean intermittent catheterization was a “related service” under the IDEA and not a “medical service,” because the service was necessary for the student to attend school. The services requested did not fall within the medical exclusion because they need not be performed by a physician. The Court noted that “Congress sought primarily to make public education available to handicapped children and to make such access meaningful.”
• Burlington Sch. Committee v. Mass. Bd. of Ed., 471 U. S. 359 (1985) – The Court established, for the first time, the right of parents to be reimbursed for their expenditures for private special education. This decision (together with the Court’s decision in Florence v. Carter) generally stands for the proposition that a school district may be required to reimburse parents for tuition and other expenses related to a private school placement when (1) the IEP and placement offered by the school district were inadequate or inappropriate (in other words, where the school district failed to offer FAPE) (2) the parents’ private placement was appropriate for their child’s needs, and (3) the balance of the equities favors reimbursement. The Court also explained that in an IDEA dispute, a court has broad authority to fashion appropriate relief considering equitable factors, which will effectuate the purposes underlying the Act, and that the IDEA provides “procedural safeguards to ensure the full participation of the parents and proper resolution of substantive disagreements.”
• Honig v. Doe, 484 U.S. 305 (1988) – The Court addressed the IDEA’s “stay put” provision, explaining that in enacting “stay put”, Congress intended “to strip schools of the unilateral authority they had traditionally employed to exclude disabled students … from school.” The Court also noted that the IEP is the “centerpiece of the [IDEA’s] education delivery system” and explained that “Congress repeatedly emphasized throughout the Act the importance and indeed the necessity of parental participation in both the development of the IEP and any subsequent assessments of its effectiveness.”
• Florence County School District Four v. Shannon Carter, 510 U.S. 7 (1993) – The Court discussed the standards pursuant to which a parent may obtain reimbursement for a private educational placement. Importantly, the Court determined that reimbursement does not necessarily require that the private school meet the IDEA’s definition of free appropriate public education; the private school does not necessarily have to meet the state education standards.
• Buckhannon v. West Virginia Dept. of Health and Human Resources, 532 U.S. 598, 121 S.Ct. 1835 (2001) –  The Court ruled that in order to obtain attorney fees as a “prevailing party,” the party must secure either a judgment on the merits or a court-ordered consent decree.
• Schaffer v. Weast, 546 U.S. 49 (2005) –  The Court held that, absent a state statute to the contrary, the party seeking relief bears the burden of proof in an administrative due process proceeding.
• Arlington v. Murphy, 548 U.S. 291 (2006) –  The Court held that a provision of the IDEA authorizing “reasonable attorneys’ fees for prevailing parents does not authorize the recovery of fees for expert’s services.
• Jacob Winkelman v. Parma City School District, 550 U.S. 516 (2007) – Here, the Court determined that parents may pursue claims under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) on their own behalf, as the rights conferred to parents under the Act exist independently from the rights of their child.

U.S. Court of Appeals Decisions

There are 13 appellate courts that sit below the U.S. Supreme Court, and they are the U.S. Courts of Appeals. A court of appeals hears challenges to District Court decisions from courts located within its circuit. The U.S. District Court of New Jersey sits within the Third Judicial Circuit. Decisions made in the Third Circuit are binding in all New Jersey courts. Decisions made in other Circuit Courts are influential when the same issue has not previously been addressed by the Third Circuit. Below are some of the important special education decisions that have been issued by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

• Lester H. v. Gilhool, 916 F.2d 865 (3rd Cir. 1990) –  The Third Circuit held that compensatory education is available to respond to situations where a school district flagrantly fails to comply with the requirements of IDEA.
• Oberti v. Board of Educ., 995 F.2d 1204 (3rd Cir. 1993) – Children with disabilities are entitled to be educated in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) that is appropriate to meet their needs. In this case, the Court adopted a two part test to determine whether a child has been placed in the least restrictive environment. It must first be determined whether education in the regular classroom, with the use of supplementary aids and services, can be achieved satisfactorily. In making this determination, courts should consider several factors, including: (i) whether the school district has made reasonable efforts to accommodate the child in a regular classroom; (ii) the educational benefits available to the child in a regular class, with appropriate supplementary aids and services, as compared to the benefits provided in a special education class; and (iii) the possible negative effects of the inclusion of the child on the education of the other students in the class. If placement outside the regular classroom is necessary, then it must be determined whether the child is mainstreamed to the maximum extent appropriate, i.e., whether efforts have been made to include the child in school programs with non-disabled children whenever possible. Thus, disabled children should be mainstreamed to the maximum extent appropriate and their removal from the regular education environment should occur only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.
• Polk v. Cent. Susquehanna Intermediate Unit 16, 853 F.2d 171 (3rd Cir. 1998) –  The Third Circuit has held that the educational benefit to which each student is entitled must be more than “trivial,” it must be “meaningful.” The Third Circuit inferred that Congress must have envisioned that “significant learning” would occur. The Court recognized the difficulty of measuring this benefit and concluded that the question of whether the benefit is de minimis must be answered in relation to the child’s potential. Thus the standard was set, a FAPE requires “significant learning” and “meaningful benefit.”
• Ridgewood Board of Educ. v. N.E., 172 F.3d 238 (3rd Cir. 1999) – In this case, the Third Circuit held that “the provision of merely “more than a trivial educational benefit” does not meet the [Polk] standard . . . . Rowley and Polk reject a bright-line rule on the amount of benefit required of an appropriate IEP in favor of an approach requiring a student-by-student analysis that carefully considers the student’s individual abilities.
• T.R. v. Kingwood Township, 205 F.3d 572 (3rd Cir. 2000) – In this case, the Court clarified that the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) is the one that, to the greatest extent possible, satisfactorily educates the disabled child with non-disabled children, in the same school the child would attend if the child were not disabled. T.R. involved a preschool aged child who was offered placement in an in-district classroom where half the children were disabled and half were typically developing, which the Court held was a “hybrid” program and therefore not the LRE.
• G.L. v. Ligonier Valley School District Authority, No. 14-1397 (3rd Cir. 2015) – This case clarified how to interpret IDEA’s two-year statute of limitations. The Court held that the IDEA’s statute of limitations creates a “discovery rule” approach, in which the statute begins to run on the date the parents knew or should have known of the FAPE violation, rather than an “occurrence rule” approach, wherein the statute of limitations period would begin to run on the actual date of the violation. Based on this clarification, parents would be required to file a request for due process within two years of the date they knew, or should have known, their child was denied a FAPE. If the parents of a student reasonably do not discover the denial of a FAPE to their child for many years, so long as the parents file within two years of discovering it, the parents have no limit on the number of years for which they can seek relief.

Contact New Jersey Special Education Attorney Lori E. Arons, Esq. Today to Discuss Your Case

The laws related to special education and educational rights in the United States are extremely complicated and lawyers who have been practicing for years may have little or no experience with this area of law. For this reason, it is critical for parents of children with special needs to retain a lawyer who understands the unique issues that arise in this area of law and are familiar with the various state and federal laws, regulations, and court decisions that can have an impact on the way a case will be resolved.

Lori E. Arons, Esq. is a skilled NJ special education lawyer who has been through the IEP process with her own children, and is personally invested in ensuring that kids with special needs get the education to which they are legally entitled. To schedule a consultation with Lori, call our office today or send us an email through our online contact form.

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Case Study SPED105 Sample for Special Education

Case Study Sample I. Basic Information II. Reason for Referral III. Background History IV. Behavioral Observations V. Tests and Procedures Administered VI. Test Results VII. Conclusion VIII. Recommendations

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John is a 6 th grade boy who was recently evaluated for special education. His evaluation results indicated deficits in the following areas:

1- John has difficulty in learning how to gather and organize information for a report or an assignment in a clear and coherent manner.

2- John has difficulty planning, revising, and rewriting his assignments.

3- John has difficulty applying division and multiplication facts in order to solve fractions.

4- John has great difficulty understanding and integrating information in areas like science when it comes to charts and diagrams.

5- John has great difficulty and gets confused when determining the meaning from multiple meaning words and phrases.

See how the latest update to NASET's IEP Goals and Objectives with Common Core State Standards application can be used with this case study!

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5 Ways "A Case Study Approach to Writing Special Education Documents" Will Change How You Look at IEPs

By: Dr. Kathleen Boothe and Dr. Andrea Hathcote

Writing special education documents can be a daunting task, but when armed with the right information, they can be exciting to develop and implement so your students soar with success!

As professors who have both been responsible for helping pre-service teachers learn how to write quality special education documents, we wrote A Case Study Approach to Writing Special Education Documents: From Preschool to Graduation because we saw a gap in the current teaching materials.

Many of our students were not yet in their field placements. How can pre-service teachers learn to write quality special education documents without access to good data? Then, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, and quarantine further complicated this issue. Now, many pre-service teachers are online and even more distant from actual students and real-time data. We have scrambled for years trying to piece together case studies that provided the necessary components for writing a good special education document, but it never felt like it was enough.

There were many times we sat in our offices searching away at the internet, looking at chapter introductions or little descriptions of student success in textbooks to find case studies for our students to use when writing different special education documents. If you have not tried it, we hope you never do – it is not an easy task! With all the wasted time searching, we decided that writing a case study would be the best option – we would help ourselves and help other educator preparation faculty by filling a gap.

We wanted to provide a “one-stop shop” for professionals where they could get background information on the required components of special education documents, but also provide insight into a family—that human touch you only get interacting with a real student. As we began developing the book, we wanted to make sure that others could benefit from the book as well. We created the book mainly for our higher education colleagues, but we also believe that in-service teachers could use it to practice, especially with a student in which they are not personally invested. The distance gives everyone reading the book the opportunity to focus on technical writing.  We wanted to remove the heavy consequences of an IEP meeting and allow the reader to simply practice, experiment, and try to perfect the necessary technical writing. 

Our new book will take you through the life of Rochelle, beginning with Head Start and ending with her graduation from high school. Readers will learn about her struggles and her successes. You will also hear from key stakeholders in Rochelle’s educational career. You will get to know Rochelle like she is one of your own students and be able to write all the important special education documents that a student goes through in their education: Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), Individualized Education Plan (IEP), a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) and Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP), and finally, an Individualized Transition Plan (ITP). 

By following one student throughout her journey in special education, we aim to give readers perspective on how the system should work to build skills, reduce barriers, and support success. 

Key takeaways from this book:

•  Key resources that we share with our pre-service and in-service teachers
•  Tips on writing the key components of a variety of special education documents
•  Familiarity with students, their often unique family structures, and their life journey to develop insight when providing a quality education to our   students
•  Responsibility of the teacher to demonstrate advocacy for student rights and self-determination to all stakeholders, especially reluctant and   possibly combative members of an IEP team
•  Freedom to practice writing, seek feedback, and improve document development without high-stakes consequences

We hope this case study will come in handy for any professor, pre-service teacher, or current teacher needing a tool to help them practice. It was truly our labor of love. This book is our tiny way of returning something good to the special education community that has done so much for us.  May we continue to come together to support our students and teachers in the field! 

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A Case Study Approach to Writing Individualized Special Education Documents: From Preschool to Graduation

Dr. Kathleen Boothe  has served the special education community in several  capacities. She has been a classroom paraprofessional and teacher for students with emotional and behavioral disorders, as...

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Wieringo, Richard, "A Case Study of the Experiences of Students with Disabilities Who Did Not Complete High School" (2015). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects . 1113. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/1113

This case study explores the experiences of students with disabilities who have dropped out of high school, so as to identify related factors that led to their decisions. Participants included both males and females who were designated as students with disabilities at Ridgeville High School (pseudonym for a Virginia high school) and who dropped out between their third and fourth years of high school, during the 2010 to 2014 academic years. All participants were between the ages of 18 and 24. The case study was conducted through the use of semi-structured interviews, journaling, and observation of the sample population, with the aim of identifying common experiences among students who have dropped out of school close to graduation. The results of the semi-structured interviews were examined using reductive qualitative analysis, which included the use of coding and extraction of themes. The study results indicated that the overall sense of belonging of the students was low. The attitude of the students towards themselves, especially the nature of their disability, was another aspect that was found to be a great determinant of the reasons connected with high dropout rates of students with disabilities. The students also believed that more effort is needed from the teachers, their peers and the schools to help them in the school environment.

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3 subconscious signs someone is attracted to you—by a psychologist.

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Here’s how to tell if someone is attracted to you and trying to connect—whether they realize it or ... [+] not.

Sometimes it can be obvious when someone likes you. You might notice them laughing at your worst jokes or making any excuse to touch you—like the old “comparing hand sizes for fun.” An even clearer sign is when they find you beautiful even at your worst, as one Reddit user humorously noted, “when they think you’re beautiful on days you look like a rusted lawn mower.”

Another user shared, “My wife still almost starts jump-walking if she sees me coming from the other direction. It’s adorable. Like she wants to walk faster but she also wants to jump, so every step is a little leap.”

While these examples highlight unmistakable signs of deep affection that are easy to spot, recognizing if someone likes you before a strong bond forms can be much more challenging.

People might not always be overt about their feelings, and their words and actions may not always align. However, subconscious signs can reveal someone’s attraction toward you. By tuning into these cues, you can better understand when someone is interested in you.

Here are three signs to pay attention to, as outlined by research.

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Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024, 1. prolonged eye contact.

One of the most telling subconscious signs of attraction is prolonged eye contact. People who are attracted to another person tend to maintain eye contact longer than usual, driven by a desire to connect and understand the other person better.

This behavior often manifests in seeking opportunities to catch your gaze, even if they haven’t met you yet. They might make constant eye contact or look away when you catch them, only to look back again when you glance away. Even when they do know you, you might often find them looking at you, sometimes to the point of getting lost in their thoughts, and you’d have to pull them back.

Those moments signal, “You have my attention,” which can be a significant first step in showing their interest in you.

A 2014 study published in Psychological Science found that eye gaze can reveal whether a person feels love or lust. When participants thought about love, they spent more time looking at the face of the person. When thinking about lust, unsurprisingly, participants focused more on the body.

2. Mirroring

Mirroring, when expressing attraction, is the subconscious act of mimicking the gestures, posture, movements or speech patterns of someone you’re drawn to. It’s a nonverbal way of saying, “I’m interested and I admire you.” This behavior fosters a sense of harmony and rapport, making interactions feel more comfortable and engaging. When someone mirrors you, it subtly shows their desire to build a bond.

Imagine you are on a date at a cozy café. Every time you sip your drink, your date also takes a sip of theirs. When you lean in to speak more closely, your date mirrors the gesture by leaning in as well.

As you share a funny story and laugh, your date smiles and laughs in sync with you, reflecting your facial expressions. You rest your hand on the table; moments later, your date does the same. When you speak in a lively tone—your date matches your energy and pace, creating a harmonious flow in the conversation.

These subconscious imitations of your actions, expressions and speech suggest that your date is attracted to you and is trying to create a deeper connection by aligning their behaviors with yours.

A 2016 study suggests that romantically involved individuals automatically imitate their partners more than close platonic friends. This automatic imitation is linked to relationship quality and adult attachment style, indicating deeper connection and attraction.

3. Change In Voice

Lastly, changes in voice tone can indicate attraction. When someone is attracted to another person, their voice often becomes softer and more modulated. This change is a subconscious attempt to appear more attractive and engaging to the person of interest.

A 2018 study found that both men and women modulate their voice pitch based on their date’s desirability. The study highlights that dynamic voice modulation, such as lowering or raising pitch, is a strategic behavior used to communicate attraction and increase perceived attractiveness.

These subtle and often subconscious vocal changes reflect a person’s interest and intention to appeal to their date.

Here are the key findings of the study:

• Voice pitch changes with attraction. Men lower their voices, and women raise their voices when speaking to someone they prefer.
• Influence of desirability. Both sexes modulate their pitch based on the desirability of their date. Women increase their pitch for preferred men who aren’t highly desired by others, while men lower their pitch more for women they prefer who are less desired by others.
• Impact on perceived attractiveness. Men with lower-pitched voices and women with softer voices are generally seen as more desirable.

Often unnoticed or misinterpreted, these signs offer a deeper glimpse into genuine affection and the desire to connect. So, the next time you wonder about someone’s feelings, pay close attention to these hidden cues—they might reveal more than words ever could.

Are you curious to learn more about attraction in the workplace? Learn by taking: Interpersonal Attraction Scale (Task Attraction)

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• Graduate Studies

Graduate Courses and Topics

Graduate courses at Case Western Reserve University are thoughtfully designed to offer a comprehensive blend of advanced academic study and practical application. These courses cover a wide range of disciplines within music, providing students with deep theoretical knowledge, specialized skills, and research opportunities.

Students benefit from personalized mentorship by distinguished faculty, access to extensive resources, and hands-on experiences that are integrated into their coursework. These include fieldwork, teaching experiences, ensemble participation, and opportunities to present research at conferences and publish in leading journals.

The program also emphasizes professional development, equipping students with the tools needed to translate their academic learning into impactful careers. Whether pursuing roles in education, research, performance, or leadership, graduates are well-prepared to excel and innovate in their chosen fields.

Graduate Courses in Historical Performance Practice

Graduate courses in Historical Performance Practice (HPP) immerse students in the study and performance of early music, focusing on historically informed techniques and practices. These courses develop both the artistic and scholarly capacities of students, preparing them for careers as performer-scholars, ensemble directors, and educators in the field of early music. Additionally, these courses:

• Cultivate Specialized Performance Skills : Offer rigorous training in the performance of music from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, using period instruments and historically accurate techniques.
• Promote In-Depth Research in Performance Practice : Encourage students to engage in original research on historical performance topics, examining various types of sources and exploring related issues to inform and execute their practice.
• Integrate Practical Experience with Scholarly Study : Combine performance opportunities with academic coursework, allowing students to apply their research directly to their performance and vice versa.
• Facilitate Collaboration with Experts : Provide opportunities to work closely with renowned faculty, guest artists, and fellow students in both the HPP program and the Joint Music Program with the Cleveland Institute of Music.
• Enhance Leadership and Teaching Skills : Prepare students for leadership roles in early music ensembles, as well as teaching positions in academic settings, by offering experiences in ensemble direction, lecture-recitals, and pedagogy.
• Offer Access to Historical Instruments and Resources : Give students hands-on access to the Kulas Collection of Historical Instruments, as well as advanced resources in musicology and performance practice.

Graduate Courses in Music Education

Graduate courses in Music Education are integrated with fieldwork and teaching experiences, allowing students to work directly with schools, ensembles, and community organizations. This hands-on approach prepares them for leadership roles in education and equips them with the robust skills needed for success in their careers. These courses are designed to:

• Deepen Pedagogical Expertise : Explore innovative teaching methods and strategies tailored to various educational settings, enhancing your ability to engage and inspire students.
• Enhance Curriculum Development Skills : Learn to design and implement effective music curricula that address diverse learning needs and meet educational standards.
• Advance Assessment and Evaluation Techniques : Develop the ability to assess student performance and program effectiveness, ensuring continuous improvement and accountability.
• Foster Research Competence : Engage in original research projects with opportunities to present findings at professional conferences and publish in academic journals, contributing to the field of music education.
• Provide Leadership Preparation : Prepare for leadership roles in educational settings through fieldwork, teaching experiences, and direct engagement with schools, ensembles, and community organizations.

Graduate Courses in Musicology

Graduate courses in Musicology provide an in-depth exploration of music history, theory, and analysis, fostering critical thinking, scholarly rigor, and  a deep understanding of the cultural, social, and intellectual contexts of music, preparing students for leadership roles in the academic and professional music communities. 

• Develop Advanced Research Skills : Equip students with rigorous research methodologies, enabling them to conduct original studies and contribute new insights to the field of musicology.
• Expand Historical and Analytical Knowledge : Offer comprehensive study of various historical periods, genres, and styles, allowing students to gain expertise in the evolution and interpretation of music.
• Encourage Interdisciplinary Exploration : Integrate approaches from related disciplines such as cultural studies, gender studies, and performance practice, broadening the scope of musicological inquiry.
• Provide Scholarly Engagement Opportunities : Encourage students to present papers at national and international conferences, publish in leading academic journals, and participate in seminars and colloquia with distinguished scholars.
• Prepare for Academic and Professional Careers : Through teaching assistantships, fellowships, and internships, students gain valuable experience that prepares them for careers in academia, research institutions, and cultural organizations.

MUHI 450: Topics in Music History

• Bach in Context (Bennett, McClary)  | This course locates Bach within his cultural context: his training, professional positions, the composers who influenced him, the ideologies (religious and secular) that affected him. But it focuses primarily on his music, especially on the ways he brought his own priorities to the procedures and genres he inherited.
• Beethoven Quartets (McClary)  | This course traces Beethoven’s development as a composer through the detailed examination of most of the string quartets. Discussions draw on standard approaches to form but also involve methods developed for dealing with musical content.
• Berlioz: Sound, Style, Legacy (Brittan)  | An in-depth study of Berlioz’s musical and critical output and his literary and sonic environments. This class (sometimes cross-listed at the graduate/undergraduate levels) is designed to introduce students to Berlioz’s major vocal and instrumental works, as well as their historical contexts, contemporary reception, and musical legacy. Close-reading of Berlioz’s work is central, as is wider consideration of the composer’s musical, urban, and industrial soundscapes; his theories of conducting; his relationship with romantic technology; his critical and autobiographical output; his interaction with literature; and his historical (and current) reception.
• Film Music (Goldmark)  | This course is an historical-thematic overview of major topics in film music, organized semi-chronologically by means of overlapping film genres. Topics for discussion include: the music used in early “silent” film venues; compositional idiosyncrasies in numerous genres (including, but not limited to, dramas, film noir, animation, musicals, and action-adventures, western, romantic comedies, suspense-thrillers, and historical epics); differences in studio practices; creative differences between directors and composers; and the development of the pop song soundtrack.
• Hollywood Musicals (Goldmark)  | This course is an exploration of a particular flavor of musical drama—the Hollywood musical. Few can agree on what qualifies as a “true” musical. Are Broadway adaptations more bona fide than musical episodes of television sitcoms? Are the Doris Day films musicals, or comedies with singing? Are all Disney cartoons musicals? What about “very special [musical] episodes” of television shows? There’s also the structure of the story to consider, as well as gender roles, racial stereotypes, ethnic under/overtones, and camp. And let’s not forget the music.
• Mahler (McClary)  | This course examines Mahler’s development as a composer through the detailed examination of his symphonies and song cycles. Discussions draw on standard approaches to form but also deal with methods developed for dealing with musical content.

MUHI 590: Seminar in Musicology

• Blues Cultures (Brittan)  | An investigation of the blues as a musical and lyrical form as well as a set of social and cultural practices. Beginning in the Mississippi Delta with the country blues, the course moves roughly chronologically, looking at classic and urban blues, the role of blues language and culture during the Harlem Renaissance, extensions of the blues through the electric era, and its ‘revival’ in Britain in the 1960s. Our aim will be to open up questions surrounding blues transformations and racial politics; the ties between blues cultures and the rise of modernism; the social and sexual coding of both black and white blues; and the ways in which blues sounds and aesthetics have permeated American popular music since the 1920s. Historical and literary-critical methodologies are central, as are practices of close-reading and transcription, comparative listening, visual and poetic analysis, and study of reception histories.
• Chant, Liturgy, and Polyphony (Rothenberg)  | The seminar begins with an overview of the structure of the Western liturgy and the principal forms and genres of plainchant, supported by study of medieval and Renaissance liturgical books in facsimile (paper, digital, and microfilm). The middle part of the course focuses on recent musicological studies that use chant and liturgy to shed light on polyphonic music from the thirteenth through seventeenth centuries. The final class meetings are dedicated to student presentations of final research projects.
• Divine Love in 17 th -Century Music (McClary)  | The sixteenth-century religious crisis precipitated by the Reformation gave rise to a number of subjective strains of Christian spirituality. During the seventeenth century, the Counter-Reformation church, Lutheran pietists, and English metaphysicians drew on concepts of Divine Love and religious ecstasy in order to instill a sense of personal devotion among practitioners. This seminar focuses on musical manifestations of Divine Love within the context of the cultures within which they emerged.
• French Baroque Spectacle (Cowart)  | Prominent components of Louis XIV’s propaganda, the arts of spectacle also became sources of a potent resistance to the monarchy in late seventeenth-century France. With a particular focus on the court ballet, comedy-ballet, opera, and opera-ballet, this course looks at the ways in which the festive arts deployed an intricate network of subversive satire to undermine the rhetoric of sovereign authority. We trace this strain of artistic dissent through the comedy-ballets of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Molière, the late operatic works of Lully and the operas of his sons, the opera-ballets of André Campra, the opera-ballets of Rameau, and the related imagery of Antoine Watteau’s paintings. Exploring these arts from the perspective of spectacle as it emerged from the court into the Parisian public sphere, we situate the ballet and related genres as the missing link between an imagery of propaganda and an imagery of political protest.
• Musical Humanism in Late Renaissance France (Bennett)  | This seminar explores the rise of musical humanism – the attempt to recreate of the music of classical antiquity – in France from c.1550-1640, providing the foundation on which the study of much of later French music depends. Beginning with the poetry and music associated with Pierre de Ronsard and the  Pléaide , subsequent classes explore the  Académie de Poesie et de Musique  of Charles IX (1571), the  Balet Comique de la Reine  (1581), the rise of the  air de cour  in the late 16 th  and early 17 th  centuries, and the  balet de cour  in the early 17 th  century. The class concludes by considering the “end of musical humanism”, the famous debate featuring Descartes and Mersenne in which both philosophers offer a detailed analysis of an  air  that accords with the newer conception of music as a rhetorical, text-based art, rather than a number-based discipline.  
• Music and Histories of Magic (Brittan)  | An investigation of music’s historical intertwining with conceptions of enchantment, wonder, and transformation. The course is transhistorical and transnational, spanning the Renaissance to the twenty-first century, and incorporating theological, scientific, musical, literary, and visual materials. Points of focus include Renaissance cosmology and sonic theology; fairy tale literature and opera; eighteenth-century marvelous soundworlds, fantastic cultures of the nineteenth century, and non-Western traditions of musical divination and enchantment. Our goal is to trace the ways in which sound has operated, historically, as a mediating device between lived and imaginary, human and supernatural worlds. We will be concerned not just with composed music, but sonic histories in a broader sense, and with interactions between Western and non-Western forms of sounding magic.
• Opera after  Einstein  (McClary)  | This seminar examines operas written between Philip Glass’s  Einstein on the Beach  and the present moment. Studies of operas from earlier historical periods now regularly address representations of power, gender, sexuality, and subjectivity. We will be discussing how the operas of our own time operate with respect to cultural contexts and ideologies.
• Opera and Its Audiences, 1600 – 2000 (Cowart)  | The subject of opera audiences as a field of study emerged in the 1990s, in the wake of the “cultural turn” of the previous two decades, from the growing displacement of attention from the work of art as formal object and result of authorial intention to the reader or audience as the source of more relative and pluralistic interpretations. The application of these ideas to the audiences of theater has encouraged an expanded interest in the cultural effects of performance, especially on the individual spectator and segments of the audience comprising, for example, women and gays. This course treats opera audiences in the broader contexts of social, cultural, and commercial histories, including the function of the opera house as a social and cultural environment. It also focuses on the behaviors and demographics of opera audiences, while reaching into broader arenas of reception, taste, and aesthetics, all of which emanate from the interactions of audiences with operatic works, styles, and performances.
• Romantic Shapes (Brittan)  | A consideration of musical shape and shapelessness in the nineteenth century, and the philosophical, political, and scientific impulses underpinning romantic form. Topics covered include spirals, circles and psychoanalysis; organicism and ‘vital’ forms; gendered discourses and musical fragmentation/improvisation; imaginary or unnotatable forms; miniaturism and gigantism; and formal temporalities. We will be concerned with the ways in which musical shape is inflected by social power structures, medical theory, emerging materialist discourses (neuroscientific, physiological, acoustic), theological currents, and romantic technology. Our orientation is fundamentally interdisciplinary: visual, scientific, and literary objects will be as important as sonic artifacts. Our aim is to understand nineteenth-century theories of structure while also grappling with romantic tendencies toward deconstructionism and anti-formalism.    
• Sonic Histories of Medicine, 1780 – 1930 (Brittan)  | A contemplation of sound-medicine interactions between roughly 1780-1930. Examples of topics covered include histories of nervous function and their relationship with medical ‘treatment’; auditory cultures of mesmerism and somnambulism; nineteenth-century practices of medical listening (including percussive and stethoscopic audition); systems of music and movement (including Dalcroze and Alexander Technique); music and theories of romantic cognition; and staged representations of pathology (hysteria, neurasthenia, and tuberculosis). We will be concerned both with medicine’s sonic pasts and its ties to theatricality. We will also examine the political, sexual, and gendered implications of aural medicine. Some meetings are held at the Dittrick Medical Museum and Archive.  
• Tin Pan Alley (Goldmark)  | In this seminar we investigate different perspectives on the rise of mass-mediated popular music in the United States at the turn of the 20th century. We explore the history of the place Tin Pan Alley, including the trajectory of the music publishing industry from small to big business, and situate it amongst the many other forms of material culture reaching new heights at the same time.  We will look into what kinds of songs were created by Tin Pan Alley songwriters and consider who were the target audience for such songs. And we will discuss the endless avenues that Tin Pan Alley took into performance venues and media: stage, screen, recordings, literature, theatre, journalism, etc.

MUHI 612: Analysis for Historians (McClary) This seminar (required of all graduate students in Musicology) develops a range of ways in which musicologists might bridge the gap between the details of a musical score or performance and the historical context within which it first appeared. Each unit focuses on a different repertory (e.g. Beethoven symphony, French dance suite, 19 th -c. opera or ballet, film score, madrigals, blues-based music, recent concert music), considering for each what it means to “analyze” this particular genre or style and establishing the relevant parameters. What is the  object  of the analysis? What is the  objective  of the analysis? Discussions then proceed to issues of critical interpretation.

MUTH 416: Pre-common Practice Theory and Analysis (McClary) This seminar focuses on the theory and analysis of music composed before the procedures now called “tonality” solidified in eighteenth-century Europe.

Machine Learning-Aided Understanding of Structure-Activity Relation: A Case Study of MoS2 Supported Metal-Nonmetal Pair for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Understanding the structure-performance relation is crucial for designing highly active electrocatalysts, yet this remains a challenge. Using MoS2 supported metal-nonmetal atom pair (XTM@MoS2, TM = Sc-Ni, X = B, C, N, O, P, Se, Te, S) for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) as an example, we successfully uncovered the structure-activity relation with the help of density functional theory (DFT) calculations and integrated machine learning (ML) methods. A ML model based on random forest regression was used to predict the activity, where the trained model exhibited excellent performance with a small error. SHapley Additive exPlanation analysis revealed that atom mass and covalent radius of X atom (m_X and R_X) dominate the activity, and the higher values usually lead to better activity. In addition, four promising candidates, i.e, PCr@MoS2, SV@MoS2, SeTi@MoS2, and SeSc@MoS2, with excellent activity are selected. This work provides several promising catalysts for HER, but more importantly, offers a workflow to explore the structure-activity relation.

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A. Chen, J. Sun, J. Guan, Y. Liu, Y. Han, W. Zhou, X. Zhao, Y. Wang, Y. Liu and X. Zhang, Nanoscale , 2024, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D4NR02112F

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