SNAAP Assistant Director, Research Services
Christian Folk
Christian Folk is the Assistant Director, Research Services of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP). He holds a Ph.D. in Music Education and a graduate certificate in Museum Studies and Material Culture from the University of Maryland, College Park, a master’s in Music Education from University of South Carolina, and a bachelor’s in Music Education from Winthrop University. Their research interests and publications explore the intersection of arts education and museum education, restorative justice practices, best DEIA practices, critical race theory and anti-racism, queer and disabled pedagogies, and arts accessibility.
Dr. Folk has over a decade of public school and higher education teaching and research experience, and has worked with multiple organizations that address issues of equity and accessibility in cultural arts programs. His work in nontraditional musical experiences is highlighted in his dissertation research — a three-study, multi-method examination of the intersections between music education and museum education pedagogies at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. They have peer-reviewed publications in Arts Education Policy Review, Visions of Research in Music Education, and the Journal of Band Research. His research has been featured at conferences including the National Association for Music Education Biennial Conference, the Society for Music Teacher Education, and the American Educational Research Association, where he was awarded the 2025 Outstanding Early Career Award in Music Education. He also currently serves as the Production Editor for the peer-reviewed journal Visions of Research in Music Education.
You can read one of Dr. Folk’s recent scholarly articles in Arts Education Policy Review, entitled Music teachers’ perceptions and implementations of restorative justice practices.
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Arts and Design Alumni
The authors of this report, Dr. Rachel Skaggs, Dr. Jennifer L. Novak-Leonard and Dr. Jeff Barbee, provide insight into arts and design graduates whose work is — or before the pandemic was — in the arts, design, or creative realm by examining their working lives, economic lives, and the skills that they needed to attain or update during the first two years of the pandemic in the United States. This report was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
