Dr. Stephen Lett
Interim Lecturer of Music Theory
Office: Catlett Music Center 219
Stephen Lett is a writer, teacher, and organizer living in Norman, Oklahoma.
Within the academy he is based in the field of music theory and comes to OU with a decade of experience teaching written and aural skills. Prior to working at OU, Dr. Lett was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan, an adjunct lecturer in Music Theory at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a graduate student instructor at the University of Michigan, where he received his Ph.D. in Music Theory in 2019.
His academic writing bridges the recent history of music theory with psychedelic science, music therapy, university studies, and abolitionist study and organizing. His work on psychedelic therapy and Guided Imagery and Music, a form of music therapy developed out of early psychedelics research, has been published in Chacruna Chronicles, Social History of Medicine, MAPS Bulletin, and Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery. His abolitionist study of the profession of Music Theory in the North American academy, “Making a Home of the Society for Music Theory, Inc.,” was published and became the basis of a colloquy in Music Theory Spectrum. Building on this work, he is currently the chair of the Society for Music Theory’s Scholars for Social Responsibility Interest Group, a space within the profession he and his colleagues have repurposed for abolitionist study and planning.
Outside of the academy, Steve is a founding member of and driver/dispatcher for Norman Care-A-Vans, which is building a community of care with unhoused folks, one ride at a time. He also co-founded and co-edits The Dispatch, a journal for unhoused friends and housed allies of Norman Care-A-Vans. In his free time, he dreams up and plans for abolitionist futures with his partner, Vivian, and two cats, Minerva and Phoebe.
