Echo Davidson is a Ph.D. student in musicology at the University of Pittsburgh. Echo earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in musicology at UCLA where she received a Best Undergraduate Senior Thesis Award for the essay “‘But What of the Victim’s Song?’: Analyzing Intersections of Rape Culture and American Popular Music.” She completed her Master’s degree at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Echo’s master’s thesis, completed at UBC, is titled “Reinventing Disability Inclusion: Representations of Disabled Bodies in Spring Awakening (2015) and Oklahoma! (2019) Through Casting, Physical Movement, and Music Performance.” This thesis uses disability studies to investigate the ways that casting actors with disabilities in recent musical theater productions for roles originally conceived for non-disabled individuals enlists audiences—able-bodied or otherwise—as disability advocates in the politics of disability that expands the visual field for disability capacities and—by extension—the domain of disability legibility. She has previously presented her research on casting, disability representation, and music performance in American musical theatre at the Indiana University Symposium, the Western University Graduate Symposium on Music, and the annual American Musicological Society conference. 

Echo’s current research interests include Western popular music, decolonization, disability studies, gender and sexuality studies, North American old-time music, and American musical theatre culture. She is a strong advocate for developing equitable, diverse, and inclusive communities within academia, collecting unique interests and experiences between student groups, schools and departments. In addition to music research, Echo has previously worked in non-profits centered on disability equity and inclusion in the workplace. When she is not watching the newest Avengers movie, Echo plays the viola and the fiddle for fun.