Dana Plank

Dr. Dana Plank focuses on intersections of music and identity in video games, particularly disability and gender. She earned her PhD in Historical Musicology from The Ohio State University, with a dissertation on representations of disability in early video game soundscapes. Before that, she earned a BA in violin performance and music history from Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and an MM in violin performance from Cleveland State University.  She is currently working on two edited collections: The Intersection of Animation, Video Games, and Music: Making Movement Sing with Lisa Scoggin for Routledge, and a volume on Gender, Sexuality, and Game Sound with Karen M. Cook and Michael Austin, also for Routledge.  She has published on the music of Tetris, uses of the Bach D minor Toccata and Fugue in 8-bit soundscapes, Mario Paint Composer and participatory culture on YouTube, Egyptian exoticism in Nobuo Uematsu's score, and the cognitive and emotional experience of video game sound for the player. She serves on the boards of the North American Conference on Video Game Music (NACVGM), Game Sound Con, and the editorial board for the Journal of Sound & Music in Games (JSMG). In addition to her scholarship and academic service, she remains active as a violinist, violist, pianist, private teacher, chamber music coach, and freelance transcriber and arranger.