Faculty Profiles

BIOGRAPHY AND EXPERTISE
Professional Biography
Holly Wissler, Ph.D., is an ethnomusicologist, music historian, educator, documentary filmmaker, and performer whose scholarship and teaching bridge ethnomusicology, Western art music, Indigenous studies, and community-engaged research. Her principal areas of expertise are the musical cultures of the Indigenous Andes and Amazon, with additional specialization in applied ethnomusicology, Indigenous theory, music and tourism, Deaf culture and accessibility, documentary and audiovisual scholarship, and intercultural pedagogy.

Wissler’s work is grounded in long-term relationships with communities and culture bearers, particularly in Peru, where she has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork and collaborative research. Her scholarship examines music as a means through which individuals and communities negotiate grief, ritual, memory, identity, resilience, cultural continuity, and social change. Central to her research philosophy is the conviction that ethnomusicological scholarship should not only document musical cultures but also serve the communities whose knowledge makes that scholarship possible. This commitment has shaped her work in collaborative filmmaking, audiovisual archive repatriation, Indigenous-language accessibility, Deaf advocacy, and community-engaged public scholarship.

Her teaching similarly integrates rigorous historical and cultural study with experiential and performance-based learning. Drawing on her training in both ethnomusicology and classical flute performance, she teaches across World Music Cultures, ethnomusicology, and Western music history. Her pedagogy emphasizes active listening, participatory music-making, intercultural comparison, critical engagement with historical narratives, and direct encounters with musicians and culture bearers. This approach encourages students to understand music not simply as repertoire or sound, but as a form of human expression embedded within particular histories, communities, belief systems, and social worlds.

Wissler has worked extensively as an educator, researcher, documentary filmmaker, cultural liaison, and expert lecturer in international settings, particularly in Peru and Nepal, bringing field-based knowledge directly into both university classrooms and public scholarship.

In Fall 2026, she serves as Visiting Professor at Vijaybhoomi University’s True School of Music in Maharashtra, India, where she represents Texas State University’s School of Music while teaching and exploring opportunities for institutional collaboration and international student and faculty exchange. In Spring 2027, she will serve as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar at Kathmandu University in Nepal, teaching ethnomusicology and world music cultures, mentoring student research, contributing to curriculum development, and pursuing comparative research connecting Himalayan and Andean perspectives.

Education
Ph.D., Musicology (Ethnomusicology emphasis)
Florida State University, 2009
Dissertation: From Grief and Joy We Sing: Social and Cosmic Regenerative Processes in the Songs of Q’eros, Peru
Research supported by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Grant

M.A., Music History
University of Idaho, 1999 — GPA 4.0
Thesis: An Outsider Inside: Ritual, Music, and Dance in the Qoyllur Rit’i Festival of the Peruvian Andes

M.M., Flute Performance
University of Idaho, 1998 — GPA 4.0

B.A., Applied Music
University of Idaho, 1996 — summa cum laude

Academic Appointments
Assistant Professor of Instruction
Texas State University, School of Music, 2019–present
Visiting Professor / Guest Faculty
True School of Music, Vijaybhoomi University, Maharashtra, India, Fall 2026
Previous teaching appointments include the University of Texas at Austin, Florida State University, University of Idaho, SIT Study Abroad and Center for World Music in Cusco, Peru.

Areas of Expertise
- Ethnomusicology and World Music Cultures Western
- Music History and the Western Art Music Tradition
- Indigenous Andean and Amazonian music and culture
- Indigenous theory and Indigenous knowledge systems
- Latin American and Himalayan musical traditions
- Applied ethnomusicology and community-engaged scholarship -- -- - Ethnomusicological fieldwork, ethnographic methods, and theory
- Music, ritual, grief, memory, and resilience
- Music, tourism, representation, and cultural encounter
- Indigenous language and cultural sustainability
- Deaf culture, disability rights, accessibility, and advocacy
- Documentary filmmaking, ethics, and audiovisual scholarship
- Audiovisual archive repatriation and collaborative research
- Experiential, performance-based, and intercultural pedagogy
- Classical flute performance Professional Profile.

Wissler’s professional work is distinguished by the integration of scholarship, teaching, performance, filmmaking, advocacy, and sustained international community engagement. Across these areas, she approaches music as both an object of scholarly inquiry and a powerful means of understanding human relationships, cultural knowledge, identity, memory, and social responsibility.