Biography
Mary Margaret Zrull is a musicologist specializing in music during World War II, with a focus on music written by French prisoners of war in Nazi captivity. Her research centers on music performance, education, and especially, composition within POW camps, exploring the significance music held for prisoners of war and examining how wartime governments used prisoner-of-war music as propaganda. Her publications include articles in Music and Politics (Summer 2026) and the Journal of the Western Society for French History (forthcoming), as well as a forthcoming review in Home Front Studies. She has presented on her research and teaching at national and international conferences, including the American Musicological Society, the Society for French Historical Studies, the Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900, and the Teaching Music History Conference.
Zrull’s teaching has been supported by the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, from which she received a 2026 Summer Scholar Grant to develop a course on music in captivity during World War II. Prior to her appointment at Ohio University, she taught courses in music and war, music history, music appreciation, music theory, and music research and writing at Hamilton College, Transylvania University, and the University of Kentucky. She holds a PhD in musicology & ethnomusicology, a Graduate Certificate in music theory pedagogy, and a bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Kentucky.