Jason Hartz teaches courses in music and art at TSU and has taught courses in the fine arts and humanities.  A Doctoral Candidate in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts at Ohio University, Jason is finishing his dissertation, Musical Americanism and The Plow That Broke the Plains.  Jason's scholarship includes Guilty By Association: Virgil Thomson, Politics, and The Plow That Broke the Plains, a paper delivered to the Battleground States Conference at Bowling Green State University, and Some Thoughts on Defining the Community Band in the United States, a paper delivered to the Midwest Chapter Meeting of the Society of Ethnomusicology at Western Kentucky University.  In the spring of 2008, he will be presenting on his dissertation at the College Music Society's Two Greats "SuperRegional" Conference at Illinois State University, and he was accepted to present on documentarian Pare Lorentz, director of The Plow That Broke the Plains, at the Appalachian Studies Association's national conference at Marshall University.  He earned his MA in Music History and Literature from Marshall University and BA from Bethany College, and he belongs to the College Music Society and the Midwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society.  In addition to assisting and performing with three TSU music ensembles in fall 2007, Jason also sings with the Lenawee Community Chorus in Adrian, Michigan, and enjoys composing liturgical choral music.