Doctor Who? A Demographic Profile of Doctoral Recipients in Music From 1984 to 2022

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the demographic profile of doctoral music recipients by discipline from 1984 to 2022. Using sociological institutionalist and feminist institutionalist frameworks, I analyzed institution-level panel data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System ( N = 3,461) to examine the demographic characteristics of doctoral recipients in music education, music history/musicology, music theory/composition, and music performance. The number of doctoral completers in education, history/musicology, and theory/composition remained relatively stable over 4 decades. The number of doctoral completers in performance increased nearly fourfold, from 342 in 1984 to 1,253 in 2022. Compared to doctoral recipients across all academic disciplines, more music doctoral completers tended to be White. Music education and history/musicology recipients mirrored broader trends toward higher proportions of female doctoral recipients, but performance and theory/composition remained disproportionately male. Additionally, no music doctorates were ever awarded at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) despite the proportion of doctoral recipients at HBCUs in other disciplines increasing over the observed period. Results are discussed in the context of the formal and informal institutions that contribute to the homogenization of various music student and teacher populations across race/ethnicity and gender.