Christina Baade is professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Media Arts at McMaster University. She is affiliated with the program in Gender Studies and Feminist Research, the Centre for Networked Media and Performance, and the McMaster Centre for Research on Employment and Work (MCREW).
Dr. Baade's research crosses popular music, media, and sound studies. In her research, she examines the performative work of women stars; the intersections of music and labor (including caregiving labor), the cultural impact of music radio and streaming; and cultural memory in post-World War II Britain. Her research examines how radio and sound media has intersected with musical performances and cultural meaning, with particular attention to questions of gender, race, class, nationality, and sexuality. Her publications span from jazz and popular music broadcasting at the British Broadcasting Corporation in the 1930s and 1940s to the role of motherhood in Beyoncé's work and the contemporary use of music streaming services in domestic spaces. Dr. Baade’s current research focuses on the postwar career of British singer Dame Vera Lynn and the impacts of caregiving (including motherhood) on contemporary music professionals.
Dr. Baade’s publications include Victory Through Harmony: The BBC and Popular Music in World War II (Oxford UP, 2012), which received an AMS 75 PAYS Publication Subvention and won the biennial Diana McVeagh Prize from the North American British Music Studies Association, the 2012 book prize from IASPM-Canada Chapter, and a Choice Outstanding Academic Title award; Music and the Broadcast Experience: Performance, Production, and Audiences (Oxford UP, 2016), co-edited with Dr. James Deaville; Music and World War II: Coping with Wartime (Indiana UP, 2020), co-edited with Drs. Pamela Potter and Roberta Marvin; and Beyoncé in the World: Making Meaning with Queen Bey in Troubled Times (Wesleyan UP, 2021), co-edited with Kristin McGee and recipient of an honorable mention for the Society for Ethnomusicology Ellen Koskoff Edited Volume Award. She has also co-edited special issues for MUSICultures, on “Music and Labour” (2014), and Journal of Popular Music Studies, on "Beyoncé (2019). She has also published 14 peer-reviewed book chapters, as well as articles in journals including Journal of the American Musicological Society, Popular Music, Journal of the Society for American Music, American Music, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, Feminist Media Studies, and Atlantis, A Women’s Studies Journal / Revue d’Etudes sur les femmes.
Dr. Baade sits on the editorial boards for Journal of the American Musicological Society and Journal of the Society for American Music. Her past leadership and service includes roles as Vice President for the Society for American Music (SAM) and book review editor for Journal of the Society for American Music; membership on the American Musicological Society (AMS) Council and executives of the North American British Music Studies Association (NABMSA) and the Canadian and U.S. chapters of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM); and program and prize committee work for AMS, SAM, NABMSA, and IASPM-Canada. At McMaster, Dr. Baade has served as Department Chair (2019-24) and University Scholar (2015-19).
Christina Baade joined the McMaster University Faculty of Humanities in 2003. She holds a B.Mus. in clarinet and women’s studies from Northwestern University and an M.Mus. and Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her past as a performer, she was a founding member of Yid Vicious klezmer ensemble, whose sophomore compact disc was issued by the Knitting Factory label, and appeared with ensembles including the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra.
