A Florida State University music professor has been chosen as the university’s first Research Fellow in the Arts and Humanities.
Iain Quinn, associate professor of organ in the College of Music, will work for the Office of Research for the next two years as a research fellow. The position will rotate every two years and work with Vice President for Research Stacey Patterson on ways that the office can best support scholarship, creativity and research related to the arts and humanities.
“Scholarship, innovation and creative activity can be found in every corner of the university,” said Vice President for Research Stacey Patterson. “No major university exists without a strong commitment to the arts and humanities. Music, dance, art, the written word – societies have been built on the backs of creative individuals who understood how these areas improved the quality of life of those around them. At FSU, we felt it was important to create a position dedicated to furthering our support of these areas, and I look forward to working with Iain over the next two years in this capacity.”
Quinn previously participated in the university’s Faculty Fellows program where he launched the multiday Festival of the Creative Arts, which featured an array of interdisciplinary programming, including film screenings and discussions led by FSU professors, symposia covering topics such as the future of arts education, the relationship between science and writing, and numerous premiere performances. He is currently planning the next festival for the Spring 2024 semester.
“Florida State is a tremendous center for creative and innovative work across the academic spectrum,” Quinn said. “Working for years on an intense project, whether it is writing a symphony or developing treatments for a medical condition requires an intense amount of productivity, vision, and research. We thrive when we collaborate on new initiatives that advance our respective fields, and it has been exciting to see new projects begin. I look forward to working more closely with the Office of Research and developing ways to bring scholars together around the arts and humanities.”
Quinn has a distinguished record as a musician, scholar, and educator. He has given recitals at some of the world’s most prestigious musical centers including Westminster Abbey, King’s College, Cambridge, Queen’s College, Oxford, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., St. Thomas Fifth Avenue in New York City, Saint-Sulpice, Paris, and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.
He has been a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, a Visiting Composer in Chapel at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and a Visiting Fellow at The Newberry Library, Chicago, and the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin. He has also been a Fulbright Scholar, teaching at The Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory.
In 2023, he will publish two new monographs: Music and Religion in the Writings of Ian McEwan (Boydell and Brewer), and Rudolph Ganz, Patriotism, and Standardization of The Star-Spangled Banner, 1907-1958 (Routledge).