Abby Aresty

  • Interim Director of Inclusive Excellence in STEM Pedagogy and Undergraduate Research
  • Program Director for Engaged Learning Initiatives

Offices

Education

  • BM in composition, Eastman School of Music, 2006
  • MM in composition, University of Michigan, 2008
  • DMA in composition, University of Washington, 2012

Biography

Dr. Abby Aresty is a STEM and arts educator with extensive experience mentoring students pursuing undergraduate research across disciplines. Since 2019, Aresty's research assistants have utilized creative technologies in developing educational STEM and arts (STEAM) programming for community partners. Projects have included both in-person and virtual symposia, community-engaged learning opportunities, as well as a STEAM summer camp for girls. 

As a trained musician and composer, Aresty's enthusiasm and passion for inclusivity in STEM disciplines grew out of her introduction to the highly technical discipline of music technology. Her own research interests have centered around making—broadly defined—and, as a pedagogical tool for inclusivity, this has become central to her teaching and research. In recent years, the focus of her work shifted to hybrid technologies, community engaged art, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Over the past six years she designed and taught eight new hands-on, interdisciplinary courses, including three created in collaboration with colleagues across disciplines as part of broader learning communities.

Aresty has presented her research in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong, in conferences including NIME, ICMC, Balance/Unbalance, ISEA, and Sonic Environments. Her work has been featured on NPR and in the Seattle Times. She has held fellowships at the Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, Grinnell College, and the Acoustic Ecology Lab at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts.

VP for Membership, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (elected 2022)

Spring 2025

Inclusive Excellence in STEM Pedagogy — LLAB 110

Notes

Abby Aresty and Rachel Gibson '20 present Crafting Sound Workshop

October 6, 2021

TIMARA Technical Director Abby Aresty and Oberlin alum Rachel Gibson '20 presented their “Crafting Sound Workshop” exploring the intersection of sound, hybrid technologies, and critical making at Union College's Engineering and Liberal Education Symposium.

Faculty and Staff present at Engineering and Liberal Education Symposium

October 4, 2021

Oberlin College and Conservatory Faculty and Staff Abby Aresty, Larissa Fekete, Abe Reshad, and Al Evangelista presented the multi-year collaboration, “ArtiFACT Project” at the 2021 Engineering and Liberal Education (E&LE) Symposium. As part of the Building Partnerships panel, they discussed Oberlin community partnerships and collaborations, highlighting technological innovations and Covid-19 pivots including digitation, technologies from Cooper Language Learning Lab, dance department films, and technologies from TIMARA. The E&LE Symposium provides a forum for educators and professionals to discuss the role of engineering at a liberal arts college and liberal arts in an engineering education.

Abby Aresty presents on course with Rachel Gibson '20 at conference

June 29, 2021

TIMARA Technical Director and Lecturer Abby Aresty and Rachel Gibson '20 presented their course, "Crafting Sound: Simple Sonic Interfaces for Education and Creation," at the international virtual Interaction Design and Children ACM conference. Gibson, Aresty, and Ian Moo '21 also presented their works-in-progress paper, "Apples and Oranges: Comparing Crafty Sonic Circuits for Electronics Education," at IDC.

Abby Aresty presents award-winning paper with Rachel Gibson '20

June 21, 2021

Abby Aresty, technical director and lecturer in TIMARA, and Rachel Gibson '20 presented their paper "Changing GEAR: The Girls Electronic Arts Retreat's Teaching Interfaces for Musical Expression" virtually at the New Interfaces for Musical Expression in NYU Shanghai, June 14-18, 2021. The paper has won an award (Learn to Play/Play to Learn) and honorable mention (Pamela Z diversity award) at the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference.

Abby Aresty presents at conference

November 12, 2020

Conservatory Technical Director and Lecturer Abby Aresty and Rachel Gibson '20 presented a workshop on STEAM education and experiential, community-engaged learning at the 2020 AAC&U Transforming STEM Higher Education Conference.

Abby Aresty Presents at Conference

July 21, 2020

Technical Director and Lecturer Abby Aresty and Rachel Gibson '20 presented the "Crafting Sound Workshop: Accessible Interfaces for Education and Creation," at the remote New Interfaces for Musical Expression 2020 conference. 

ArtiFACT Project Team Selected for CODEX Institute

July 12, 2020

The ArtiFACT project team, including Abby Aresty, technical director and lecturer for Technology in Music and Related Arts; Larissa Fekete, director of English for Speakers of Other Languages; Abe Reshad, director of the Cooper International Learning Center; and research assistant and computer science major Ivy Fu '22, was selected to participate in the inaugural Ohio Five CODEX Institute. The institute provides for a cohort of faculty to work in collaboration with instructional technologists, librarians, and students from the Ohio Five to redesign or augment existing courses with new approaches that foster critical engagement through digital technologies. 

News

Who is Abby Aresty?

August 23, 2021

One might expect a technical director and lecturer in the TIMARA department to have a related interest in sound, but did you know that Abby Aresty wore a traffic cone on her head in her preschool class photo? Learn more about Aresty in this installment of Who Am I?