Militant musicologist is suspended in prostitution sting

The Sheriff of Denton County, Texas, has charged 17 people in connection with online prostitution. One of them is the musicologist Peter Mondelli, who reportedly approached a woman online for a sexual encounter, only to find cops waiting with cuffs when he arrived at the assignation point.

Mondelli, a specialist in nineteenth-century music, French opera, media history, and critical theory, has been suspended from his position as associate professor at the University of North Texas College of Music.

In his campus activities, he was one of the leading activists in the ugly ‘anti-racist’ campaign to downgrade the Schenker expert Timothy Jackson. Mondelli was recently promoted to be chair of the two important governance positions, the graduate research committee and the faculty personnel committee. He is now on leave of absence until the case against him is resolved.