Vaughn Schmutz named Research Fellow for Strategic National Arts Alumni Project

Vaughn Schmutz, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology, has been named a 2024-25 research fellow for the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP). His research will utilize SNAAP data to examine the value of an arts education and the creative economy, with the topic of “Perceptions of Diversity, Social Justice, and Belonging Among Arts Graduates.”

Schmutz is co-founder and Associate Director of the Community, Heritage, and the Arts (CHArt) research center housed jointly with the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences and the College of Arts + Architecture. He is also the director of the master’s degree program in Interdisciplinary Studies.

From 2018-2023, Schmutz was co-editor of “Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts.”  His research interests include the evaluation of art and cultural heritage, processes of classification and consecration in popular music, and inequalities in arts participation. Schmutz’s research on the role of arts and culture in social mobility has been supported by the National Endowment of the Arts and the Gambrell Foundation.