Mission

Mission

Through our study, teaching, research, creativity, and administration, the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shares music’s multiplicity of forms and meanings, connecting the study of music to the larger understanding of the world, and affirming music’s importance as an expression of humanity across differences. We engage with all students, colleagues, patrons, and musical repertories with respect and humility, and with an awareness of the privilege and power that comes with being associated with a university, particularly a historically and predominantly white institution. The Department of Music is thus committed to being inclusive in its mission, vision, and values.

Anti-discrimination, anti-racism, and efforts to promote equity broadly speaking are integral to, and instrumental within, the operation of our mission. Our faculty, students, and staff espouse the idea that all groups are equal, and support policies that reduce inequality and promote equity in the study of music across color, ability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status, and veteran status.

Vision

Our vision is to bring to life the vital and vibrant role of music within all lived experience, challenging ourselves, our peers, and our communities to engage in meaningful experiential and contextual interpretations of music, while actively including all who seek to embrace the study of music at UNC and fostering skills to engage cogent conceptions across music traditions and their cultures.

Values

We value and uphold an inclusive, anti-discriminatory, and anti-racist department and campus where we openly explore music and its various roles across cultures. We value teaching our students, at all levels, the skills necessary to support the investigation and presentation of all musical arts in our communities. We value each student’s as well as each staff and faculty member’s well-being, and make curricular and hiring decisions that uphold our commitment to inclusivity, anti-discrimination, and anti-racism. We value our faculty’s contributions to creative activity, research, teaching, and the profession that make lasting differences in and to our fields whether by way of our own achievements or through empowering those with longer futures still in store. We value decision-making that expands the diversity of the department faculty, students, staff, and offerings; that celebrates what makes us purposeful; that embraces new ideas to shape our future; and recognizes that the new builds on a critical awareness of the old in all its systemic defects and artistic accomplishments.

Approved October 7, 2020