Jennifer Shafer is an assistant professor of music theory at the University of Delaware. She teaches courses in undergraduate and graduate music theory. Prior to coming to the University of Delaware, Dr. Shafer was a teaching associate and lecturer at Ohio State University, where she was named the finalist for the Outstanding Graduate Associate Teaching Award by the College of Arts and Science Student Council.

Dr. Shafer's two main research interests are music theory pedagogy and intersections of mathematics and music. She has applied mathematical and computational tools as analytical aids to music by Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and corpus study of art song melodies. Motivated by an interest in the interaction of analysis and performance, her work has also included research work in this area. Dr. Shafer has presented at regional and national conferences of the College Music Society, the 2014 EuroMAC conference and the 2017 Pedagogy into Practice conference. She also co-authored a paper published in the proceedings of the 2015 Mathematics and Computation in Music conference and recently had an article published in Engaging Students: Essays in Music Theory Pedagogy.

Originally from Big Piney, Wyoming, Dr. Shafer earned a B.M. in piano performance at East Texas Baptist University and has stayed active as a pianist, playing and teaching studio lessons. She holds an M.A. in music theory from the University of Kentucky and a Ph.D. in music theory from Ohio State University.