Anthony J. Bushard is the associate dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. He is also a professor of music (music history) and was formerly the associate director for faculty affairs in the Glenn Korff School of Music. His duties focus on curriculum, promotion/tenure process facilitation, faculty research, Hixson-Lied faculty grant administration, college governance and administrative processes. 

Dr. Bushard received a B.A. in music (piano) from St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, as well as a M.M. and Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Kansas. He is a member of the American Musicological Society, College Music Society, Society for American Music, Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies, and a two-time recipient of the Milton Steinhardt Scholarship in musicology at the University of Kansas. Also while at KU, he was a harpsichordist for the KU Collegium Musicum and the Spencer Consort.

Dr. Bushard's research interests are in Contemporary American music with a special focus on jazz, blues, and film music, and he was recognized for his work with the Hixson-Lied College’s Junior Faculty Achievement Award in Research and Creative Activity (2014). His masters research deals with the jazz and blues club scene in Kansas City during the 1930s. Furthermore, he has published sections of that research in the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Second Edition. Currently, he is expanding the scope of this topic, seen at the Mediating Jazz Conference (Manchester, England; 2009), Documenting Jazz Conference (Birmingham, England; 2020), and in the Jazz Research Journal (2019). Dr. Bushard has also collaborated with the UNL Jazz Orchestra and the UNL Big Band in their "historical concerts." The results of this partnership have been presented at the Leeds International Jazz Education Conference (Leeds, England; 2012), Echoes of Ellington Conference (Austin, Texas; 2009), International College Music Society Conference (Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik, Croatia; 2009), was featured in the Journal of Music History Pedagogy (Spring 2013), and webcast to a worldwide internet audience on NPM in 2015 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50BFi6CYg00).

Dr. Bushard's dissertation, entitled Fear and Loathing in Hollywood: Representations of Fear, Paranoia, and Individuality vs. Conformity in Selected Film Music of the 1950s, considers the musicodramatic implications of the scores for High Noon (1952), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), and On the Waterfront (1954) alongside sociopolitical undercurrents of the 1950s. This work is featured in the Journal of Film Music, Studies in Musical Theatre, College Music Symposium, Leonard Bernstein's On the Waterfront: A Film Score Guide (Scarecrow Press, 2013), Anxiety Muted: American Film Music in a Suburban Age (Oxford University Press, 2015), and Leonard Bernstein: In Context (ed. Elizabeth Wells, Cambridge University Press, 2024). He has also published reviews in Notes, the Journal of Music History Pedagogy, American Music, and the Journal of the Society for American Music. More recently, Dr. Bushard authored chapters on The Doors and Pearl Jam for The 100 Greatest Bands of All Time: A Guide to the Legends Who Rocked the World for ABC-CLIO/Greenwood (2016) and he is currently researching Pearl Jam concerts as sites of ritual and healing. Further, he collaborated with Dr. Brian Moore to write Music as Art, Discipline, and Profession, an interactive iPad textbook. For this curricular collaboration, Dr. Bushard was awarded the Hixson-Lied Leadership Award in Curriculum or Programmatic Development (2016).   

Dr. Bushard has also presented his work at meetings of the College Music Society, Society for American Music, and American Musicological Society, as well as more specialized film and jazz symposia, at the regional, national, and international levels. A native of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Dr. Bushard has taught previously at the University of Kansas and The University of Missouri, Kansas City. At UNL he teaches courses in Jazz History, Film Music, World Music, and American Music.

Courses
Classes for Music Majors
MUSC 365: Music History and Literature I
MUSC 366: Music History and Literature II
MUSC 435/835: Music and Film: History and Analysis
MUSC 437/837: History of Jazz: 1900-Bop
MUSC 438/838: History of Jazz: Post Bop
MUSC 489/889: American Music
MUSC 986: Seminar in Music History and Literature: Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein
MUSC 986: Seminar in Music History and Literature: Miles Davis

Classes for Non Majors
MUNM 189H (Honors): A World of Music
MUNM 275: Music in Film (Summer Online)
UHON 395 (Honors): American Film Music in a Suburban Age

Honors and Awards
Hixson-Lied Award in Academic Advising (2020)
Hixson-Lied Leadership Award in Curriculum or Programmatic Development (2016)
Hixson-Lied Junior Faculty Achievement Award in Research and Creative Activity (2014)