Jayme Kurland
Founder and Co-Director (PI)
Jayme Kurland is a historian and musicologist who researches the contributions of women in the histories of musical instrument manufacturing. A Ph.D. candidate in US history at George Mason University, she has been awarded pre-doctoral fellowships at the Smithsonian Institution in DC (2026-2027) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC (2024-2025). Previously, she worked in curatorial positions at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. She has presented her research at conferences in the US, Canada, Mexico, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands, and has given invited talks in the US, Canada, Scotland, and Switzerland. She is an active member of the International Council of Museums sub-committee on music, the American Musicological Society, and the American Historical Society, and has served in leadership positions in the American Musical Instrument Society and the Society for Ethnomusicology.
In 2020, Jayme founded the digital history website Instrumental Women to highlight the contributions of women to musical instrument making, past and present. Her related dissertation project, “Instrumental Women: Amplifying Women’s Labor at Fender Electric Instruments Company (1946-1965),” examines the contributions of Mexican American women workers to the manufacturing of electric guitars and amplifiers in Fullerton, California.
Hester Bell Jordan, Ph.D.
Co-Director (PI)
Hester Bell Jordan received her Ph.D. in musicology from McGill University in 2024. Her research focuses on how music intersects with gender, labour and science in the lives of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women—her current project examines the life and work of piano maker Nannette Streicher-Stein (1769–1833). Hester has taught at McGill and Brandon University, has presented at conferences in the US, Canada, the UK and Belgium, and has given invited talks in the US and Austria. Her research has been funded by the American Musicological Society and Graduate Women New Zealand.
