Alexandria Carrico is an ethnomusicologist who specializes in traditional Irish music and disability studies. She earned her doctorate from Florida State University where she wrote her doctoral dissertation, “Musical Bridges to Inclusive Communities: Promoting Neurodiversity Acceptance through Traditional Irish Music in Limerick, Ireland,” which explored how the participatory and community-based genre of traditional Irish music (TIM) can provide a space for diverse musicians to bridge neurodivergent-neurotypical gaps and, in so doing, break down negative stigma about people with disabilities. This work builds upon her earlier research from her master’s thesis, which examined the musical experiences of individuals with Williams Syndrome (WS) at Whispering Trails, a summer music camp sponsored by the Williams Syndrome Association. Over the past ten years has continued her partnership with the Williams Syndrome community, serving as the Director for the Williams Syndrome Association Whispering Trails summer music camps for children and teenagers with WS. Though she retired from this position in 2023, she has continued her research on music and WS, which is a driving force in her current project examining neurodivergent musicality and its potential to transform music education practices. Her secondary research area focuses on the intersections of race, gender, and social justice in American opera. She has published articles in Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies, The Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies, The Journal of Musicology, and has a book chapter in the award-winning edited collection, At the Crossroads of Music and Social Justice.

Carrico is a passionate pedagogue who is dedicated to creating collaborative and accessible learning spaces. She is the co-author of Disability and Accessibility in the Music Classroom (Routledge 2022) and has presented her work on the intersections of disability and pedagogy at the Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, the South Carolina Music Educators Association Annual Conference, and the National Association for Music Education National Conference. She has taught courses in world music cultures, music literature, modern popular music, music bibliography, music and disability studies, music, gender, and sexuality, and traditional Irish music (ensemble). She is one of the founders of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Disability and Deaf Studies Special Interest Group, for which she served as co-chair, communications coordinator, and secretary. Additionally, she is a classically trained vocalist and singer of traditional Irish music and bodhrán player (Irish frame drum) and enjoys participating in the community musical theatre scene in Columbia.