{"id":20501,"date":"2026-06-01T09:27:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/?page_id=20501"},"modified":"2026-06-01T09:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:31:19","slug":"michael-weinstein-reiman","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wisconsin-teaching-fellows-scholars-program\/2026-27-wisconsin-teaching-fellows-scholars-2\/michael-weinstein-reiman\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Weinstein-Reiman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"cfct-build-20501\" class=\"cfct-build grid\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"row\"><div class=\"col-md-9 cfct-block\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"cfct-module uwsa-rich-text\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"cfct-mod-content copy\"><h3>UW-Madison<\/h3>\n<p><strong><em>Assistant Professor of Music Theory<br \/>\n<\/em>Mead Witter School of Music<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I am Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the Mead Witter School of Music, where I teach music theory and musicianship. My research spans historical pedagogy, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century aesthetics, and philosophies of the mind-body continuum, with additional interests in feminist and queer studies. My current book project, The Art of Touch: Musical Learning, Keyboards, and the Modern Self (Oxford University Press), develops an intellectual history of touch understood simultaneously as action, sense, and metaphor, considering a wide range of practical teaching manuals in dialogue with the broader currents of their day. My teaching focuses on equipping students with the tools to analyze and communicate about music, emphasizing descriptive terminology alongside formal analytical strategies.<\/p>\n<h6><strong>Teaching and Learning Philosophy<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p>Music theory has a reputation for being rigid and academic; it\u2019s where students go to learn the \u201crules\u201d of music, to receive knowledge in quiet reverence. This is because music theory is so often preoccupied with the \u201cnuts and bolts\u201d of music: how to read Western notation, how to understand the organization of music\u2019s elements into scales and chords, and how to find formal logic across complete works. I believe that music theory classrooms should be the very opposite, that is: noisy.<\/p>\n<p>To that point, my teaching is guided by two core principles: active learning and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). By active learning, I mean modeling curiosity and encouraging self-guided discovery in my students. More concretely, I design my lessons to center on questions or \u201cproblems\u201d of musical pieces. UDL means optimizing learning for everyone, regardless of background or ability. One of UDL\u2019s key principles is \u201cmultiple means\u201d\u2014of engagement, representation, and of action and expression.<\/p>\n<p>In music theory classrooms, students are often asked to listen \u201cactively\u201d (that is, to pay attention), but we seldom ask them to interrogate that premise. There are times in the classroom when quiet listening is necessary, certainly, but part of my role as an instructor is to teach them why that is. Guided by the principles of active learning and universal design, I am keen for my students to adopt a stance of engaged curiosity. That, beyond understanding content and learning skills, is an intellectual habit they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/div><div class=\"col-md-3 cfct-block\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"cfct-module uwsa-rich-text\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"cfct-mod-content copy\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/129\/2026\/06\/Weinstein-Reiman-scaled.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-20500 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/129\/2026\/06\/Weinstein-Reiman-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"Photo of Michael Weinstein-Reiman\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/129\/2026\/06\/Weinstein-Reiman-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/129\/2026\/06\/Weinstein-Reiman-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/129\/2026\/06\/Weinstein-Reiman-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/129\/2026\/06\/Weinstein-Reiman-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/129\/2026\/06\/Weinstein-Reiman-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"parent":20310,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20501","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","cfct-can-haz-build"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20501"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20503,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20501\/revisions\/20503"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/opid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}