Dorian Stewart

Dorian Stewart (they/them) is a doctoral student and teaching assistant pursuing a Ph.D. in Musicology at the University of Oregon. Their main research interests include popular music history, rock and rock subgenres such as heavy metal, alternative rock, and grunge, subcultural studies, identity, aesthetics, gender studies, music and emotion, and music in 16th-century England. Currently, they are working on a research project about heavy metal and identity formation. They have served as a teaching assistant for classes ranging from Music in World Cultures, Hip-Hop: History, Culture, Aesthetics, Music of the Americas, and History of Music I (Medieval and Renaissance periods). Additionally, Dorian has presented conference papers at national and regional conferences on the topics of doom metal and progressive metal. 

Prior to the University of Oregon, Dorian received an M.A. in Music Theory from the University of North Texas, where they worked as a teaching assistant for core undergraduate theory classes, and received a B.M. in Music Composition/Theory with a minor in Songwriting at Southern Methodist University.

Outside of their research, Dorian is a guitarist, bassist, and singer-songwriter. They love writing grunge, industrial, doom metal, EDM, and any other genre that pops into their head when inspiration strikes!

Highlights:

• School of Music and Dance Music 2025 Graduate Employee Award for Excellence in Classroom/Academic Teaching (University of Oregon)
• Presented at the AMS-Pacific Northwest 2024 conference, “Signifying Desolation and The Other: Timbre and Spatiality as Metaphor in Doom Metal”
• Presented at the Society for Music Theory 2024 conference with collaborator David Heetderks, “The Role of Continuous and Ambiguous Tempo Changes in Doom Metal’s Heavy Grooves”
• Presented at the Texas Society for Music Theory 2022 conference, “Structured Chaos: Techniques of Metric Instability and Transience in Modern Metal”