Jayme Kurland
Jayme Kurland
Graduate Research Assistant
U.S. History: Cultural History, Musical Instruments, Women's History
Jayme Kurland is a Ph.D. candidate in History at George Mason University, where she focuses on 20th century cultural history, specializing in the contributions of women to musical instrument manufacturing and performance. Her dissertation project examines the roles women played at the Fender electric instrument factory in Orange County, CA. A digital historian, Kurland founded the digital history project Instrumental Women in 2020, which explores the essential roles women have played in the histories of musical instrument manufacturing.
In 2026-2027, she was awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian National Museum for American History. In 2024-2025, she was awarded the Jane and Morgan Whitney pre-doctoral fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she worked with the Museum's collection of electric guitars.
Kurland has dedicated her career to curatorial and collections management work within collections of musical instruments and music materials, at institutions including Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Phoenix’s Musical Instrument Museum, and Georgetown University’s Special Collections and Archives. Prior to embarking on her Ph.D., Jayme was an adjunct professor of ethnomusicology at GMU from 2018-2020.
During her Ph.D. studies at GMU, she worked as a graduate research assistant on the NEH-funded project Hearing the Americas at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. As a graduate research assistant GMU’s Center for Mason Legacies and the Data and Digital Scholarship Services at GMU Libraries, she curated the exhibit “A County of Contrasts: Fairfax County in the Age of Suburbanization”, and contributed content to the Mason Family Account Book project.
Jayme is an active member of the American Musical Instrument Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and the International Council Of Museums subcommittee ICOM-MUSIC.
Selected Publications
“Musical Instrument Museums and Issues of Provenance Research.” In CIMCIM Bulletin, ICOM, December 2022, 24-27.
"Streamlined and Sonic: Harmonicas and Accordions Designed by John Vassos," Archives of American Art Blog, Smithsonian, April 30, 2019.
Grants and Fellowships
- 2026-2027: Smithsonian Institution Fellowship (SIFP) at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington, DC
- 2024-2025: Jane and Morgan Whitney Pre-Doctoral Fellow, Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
Courses Taught
MUSI 103: Musics of the World
Education
Master of Arts in Music History and Literature, Arizona State University, 2015
Bachelor of Arts in Music History and Literature, University of Oregon, 2009
Recent Presentations
2026 “From the Sewing Machine to the Stratocaster to the Super-Amp: Refashioning Women’s Labor at Fender,” Amplification and Everyday Life Conference, The Amplification Project, University of Huddersfield, U.K.
2026 “A County of Contrasts” Fairfax County in the Age of Suburbanization,” Black Lives Next Door Symposium, Center for Mason Legacies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. (2026)
2026 “Beyond the Wires: Using Spatial History to Explore the Lives of Fender’s Female Workers,” American Historical Association conference, Chicago, IL.
2025 “From the Sewing Machine to the Stratocaster: Rethinking Women’s Work At Fender,” American Musicological Society conference, Minneapolis, MN.
2025 “The Instrumental Women of Fender: Redefining Women’s Labor in a Midcentury Guitar Factory,” Research Out Loud Symposium, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.
2024 “Using a Labor History Lens in Instrument Collections: A Case Study ot f the Women Workers at Fender” ICOM-MUSIC: International Committee of Museums and Collections of Instruments and Music conference, Mexico City, Mexico.
2024 “Beyond Nimble Fingers: Using Spatial History to Explore the Lives of Fender’s Female Workers,” Panel: 25 Years of Dancing in the Street, Society for American Music conference, Detroit, MI.
2023 “Instrumental Women: Using Digital History to Tell Untold Stories about Women Instrument Makers,” International Council of Museums: CIMCIM Committee for Collections of Instruments and Music, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2023 “Mapping Slave Auction Sites within Fairfax County,” Panel: Using Digital Public History to Uncover Black Lives Next Door, Keystone Digital History conference, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
2023 “Hearing the Americas: Exploring the History of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era through Sound,” Poster, American Historical Society annual conference, Philadelphia, PA
2022 Chair, “Making, Remaking, and Unmaking Musical Instruments,” Society for Ethnomusicology annual meeting, New Orleans, LA.
2022 “Instrumental Women: Representing Women Makers in Musical Instrument Collections,” International Council of Museums: CIMCIM Committee for Collections of Instruments and Music, Prague, Czech Republic.
2022 “Instrumental Women of Fender,” American Musical Instrument Society annual conference, Calgary, Ontario.
2021 “The Erasure of Women in the History of Lutherie” Inaugural Women in Lutherie Conference, Virtual.
2019 “Streamlined and Sonic: Industrial Design and the Musical Instruments of John Vassos,” Society for American Music annual conference, New Orleans, LA.
In the Media
July 2027: George Mason Students Earn Prestigious Fellowships Across Disciplines