Jennifer Harding is a lecturer in music theory at University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds a Ph.D. and M.M. in music theory from Florida State University. Her research seeks to answer questions about harmony and segmentation in music using mathematical and computational methods, with an emphasis on the discrete Fourier transform. She is also interested in issues surrounding digital representation of musical scores and their applications, with her work appearing in the proceedings of the 2020 Music Encoding Conference.

Jenn is also a violinist with degrees in violin performance from Northern Illinois University and the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. She worked for several years as a private violin instructor in the greater Chicago area and remains committed to music education at all levels.

While living in Tallahassee, Jenn worked as the Associate Director of Florida State University's College of Music Living-Learning Community, one of the largest academically themed residential housing programs of its kind.

Yellow Cat is an American shorthair who works as Jenn's personal research assistant. An independent scholar, his research centers on the daytime behaviors of the eastern gray squirrel with secondary interest areas in naps, unsupervised cultured dairy products, and chasing toys tied to a shoelace.

A would-be pianist (were it not for his regrettable want of thumbs), Yellow Cat joined the Harding family following a formative stint on the streets of Tallahassee. After a rigorous interview process, Yellow Cat selected the Harding household as his forever home. His descriptive name reflects this history: prior to Yellow Cat adopting the Harding household as his humans, Jenn and her husband found it necessary to distinguish Yellow Cat from the other neighborhood stray (known simply as “Gray Cat”).