Tekla Babyak

Hello, academic researchers and writers! Are you working on a project that would benefit from collaborative brainstorming and encouraging feedback? Then please reach out to me! I am an independent scholar, currently based on Davis, CA, and I hold a PhD in Musicology from Cornell University. My freelance services focus on developmental editing for academic books and articles in the humanities. Also, I am a disability activist with multiple sclerosis (MS) who is proud to be an openly disabled scholar and editor. My articles have appeared in top-tier journals such as 19th-Century Music and Nineteenth-Century Music Review as well as several edited collections published by Oxford University Press, Olms Verlag, and Routledge. More information about my research interests, publications, CV, and disability activism can be found at https://hcommons.org/members/tekla/

By engaging my services, you will be contributing to disability inclusion by supporting my employment as a disabled freelancer. For editorial work, the rate is $100 per 4,000 words. I also offer one-on-one sessions in person or on Zoom for $70/hour for authors to brainstorm ideas in conversation with me. Payments can be made to my email address on Zelle or Paypal.

I look forward to identifying the most original and promising arguments in your drafts, and collaborating with you to clarify and amplify these arguments. Asking questions is one of my passions during conferences; applying this skill to your manuscript, I will help you develop your emerging ideas. My editorial practice is informed by interdisciplinary expertise in musicology, music theory, philosophy, and disability studies.

Working at the intersection of musicology and music theory in my own research, I am excited about helping authors incorporate music-analytical arguments into their projects. Please consult with me about pieces that you would like to analyze for your research. I am happy to offer insights into those pieces from a variety of music-theoretical perspectives such as formal and harmonic analysis.

When giving feedback to clients on their manuscripts, I am committed to offering encouragement and kindness–a commitment that resonates with my own access needs as a scholar with MS and an anxiety disorder. I communicate with clients to ensure that my feedback is tailored to their access needs, writing style, and goals for each project. If my approach sounds like something you would be interested in, please contact me at [email protected] and we can talk about possible ways that I could serve as an editor, coach, and thought partner for your academic projects!