Ph.D. (2014) Florida State University (Legacy Fellow); M.M. (2011), University of Colorado at Boulder; B.Mus. (2008), University of Western Ontario.

John Peterson studies form and musical meaning in classical music, musical theater, and popular music; music theory pedagogy; and inclusion and belonging in music higher education. A proponent of collaborative research, John has published co-authored articles (with Brian Jarvis) in Music Theory Spectrum, the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, and SMT-V, the Society for Music Theory’s video journal. His SMT-V article appears below. As part of a team of scholars, John worked to revise and expand Open Music Theory, an online, open-source, and freely accessible textbook, which, among other things, seeks to diversify the repertoire and topics traditionally covered in music theory classes. His co-edited book, Modeling Musical Analysis (with Kimberly Goddard Loeffert), a collection of 28 short essays written by minoritized scholars to model analytical writing for undergraduate students, was published by Oxford University Press in 2025. John has presented research at international, national, and regional conferences, and is currently on the editorial board for Theory and Practice and a member-at-large in the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic.

In addition to teaching in the music theory core curriculum, John offers undergraduate and graduate seminars in music theory on a variety of topics, including: musical form, music and social justice, public music theory, music and race, underrepresented composers, and country music.