Mary E. Davis

Mary E. Davis is a cultural critic, educator, and historian specializing in fashion and its relationship to music, sport, dance, and the visual arts. She is currently a member of the Capstone Faculty at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, and has held positions as Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at Case Western Reserve University (1998-2012) and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology (2012-2020).
She is the author of the books Classic Chic: Music, Fashion, and Modernism; the biography Erik Satie; Waiting for A Train: Jimmie Rodgers’s America; and Ballets Russes Style: Diaghilev’s Dancers and Paris Fashion, as well as many book chapters, essays, and articles. Her book Paul Poiret and the Birth of the Luxury Brand will be published in 2025.
She holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Musicology from Harvard University, an M.A. in Music History from the New England Conservatory of Music, an M.M. in Piano Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and a B.M. in Piano from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame.