School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 1-10 of 13 Results
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Erica Cao
Lecturer, Music
BioErica Cao received her PhD from the University of Cambridge Centre for Music and Science and is a resident psychiatrist at San Mateo County. She seeks to understand and address social determinants of behavioral health through development and characterization of arts-based strategies through qualitative, mixed-methods, and community-engaged approaches. As part of this work, she examines the impacts of a collaborative songwriting model she developed, Music Corps, on, for example, interpersonal measures of empathy, social connectedness, and community engagement across social service and clinical settings. Trained in psychology and ethnomusicology, she has conducted fieldwork and organized songwriting workshops with social service organizations in NYC. She continues this work in community mental health settings and with San Mateo County. She co-founded Humans in Harmony, a 501(c)(3) arts nonprofit which organizes collaborative arts projects with community members. Her interests are in community-engaged research, health services implementation, and health equity.
Education
MD, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
PhD, Music, Centre for Music and Science, University of Cambridge
BA, Psychology; Certificate Program, Musical Performance, Princeton University
Publications
Cao, E. L., Blinderman, C. D., & Cross, I. (2021). Reconsidering empathy: An interpersonal approach and participatory arts in the medical humanities. Journal of Medical Humanities, 42, 627–640.
Cao, E. L., & Gowda, D. (2018). Collaborative songwriting for health sciences interprofessional service learning. Medical Education, 52(5), 550.
Cao, E. L., Lotstein, M., & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (2014). Similarity and families of musical rhythms. Music Perception, 31(5), 444–469.
Courses taught:
Music in Psychic and Social Life (MUSIC 110, ANTHRO 112, TAPS 110), Winter 2025, Spring 2026
CV: https://tr.ee/XawH03MPUg -
Chris Chafe
Duca Family Professor
BioChris Chafe is a composer, improvisor, and cellist, developing much of his music alongside computer-based research. He is Director of Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). In 2019, he was International Visiting Research Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies The University of British Columbia, Visiting Professor at the Politecnico di Torino, and Edgard-Varèse Guest Professor at the Technical University of Berlin. At IRCAM (Paris) and The Banff Centre (Alberta), he has pursued methods for digital synthesis, music performance and real-time internet collaboration. CCRMA's jacktrip project involves live concertizing with musicians the world over. Online collaboration software and research into latency factors continue to evolve. An active performer either on the net or physically present, his music reaches audiences in sometimes novel venues. An early network project was a simultaneous five-country concert was hosted at the United Nations in 2009. Chafe’s works include gallery and museum music installations which are now into their second decade with “musifications” resulting from collaborations with artists, scientists and MD’s. Recent work includes the Earth Symphony, the Brain Stethoscope project (Gnosisong), PolarTide for the 2013 Venice Biennale, Tomato Quintet for the transLife:media Festival at the National Art Museum of China and Sun Shot played by the horns of large ships in the port of St. Johns, Newfoundland.
