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Amanda C. Soto

Dr. Amanda C. Soto
Dr. Amanda C. Soto

Dr. Amanda C. Soto joined the Texas State University School of Music Faculty in Fall 2014 as an Assistant Professor of Music Education.   Her teaching career started as a middle school band director in South Texas.  She taught general music to children in kindergarten through sixth grade within the Seattle Public Schools.  Before coming to Texas State University, Soto served on the faculty of the University of Idaho Lionel Hampton School of Music.  She is currently co-instructor for the annual Smithsonian Folkways Certification Course in World Music Pedagogy that is held at the University of Washington in Seattle.  She serves as the music education member of the College Music Society Board of Directors, is co-chair of the Education Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology, and is co-chair of the Society for Music Teacher Education Cultural Diversity and Social Justice for Music Teacher Education ASPA of the Society for Teacher Music Education (STME).  She also serves as the Collegiate Chair of the Texas Music Educators Conference and is faculty advisor for the Texas State University Collegiate Texas Music Educators chapter.

Dr. Soto earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from the University of North Texas, a Masters of Arts in Ethnomusicology, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education from the University of Washington.  She has undertaken certification studies in Orff and Kodály pedagogical approaches and holds a certification in world music pedagogy from the Smithsonian Institution.

Dr. Soto’s ongoing research on world music pedagogy, children’s musical culture and identity, the use of technology in music education, social justice in music education, and Mexican and Mexican American’s music and culture has produced publications in journals in both music education and ethnomusicology.  She holds publications in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Music Educators Journal, College Music Symposium, Handbook of Social Justice in Music Education, Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education (3rd edition), Music in American Life, Readings in Ethnomusicology, and MUSIKE: International Journal of Ethnomusicology Studies of World Music and Dance Education.

Soto has presented clinical workshops and research presentations at conferences for the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), Texas Music Educators Association, the NAfME Northwest Division, the Washington and Idaho Music Educators Association, College of Music Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research, the international conference on Cultural Diversity in Music Education, and the International Society for Music Education.  Her undergraduate classroom responsibilities include teaching the elementary methods classes, and supervising student teachers.  Dr. Soto also teaches a variety of graduate level courses and independent study topics that will serve the interests of individual students.