Jake Hardesty is Dean of the College of Social Science, Commerce, and Education. He is also an Associate Professor of Education who primarily teaches Foundations of Education classes. His book, The Jazz Problem: Education and the Battle for Morality during the Jazz Age (SUNY 2023) examines how high schools and colleges were places of a generational debate about jazz, the century’s first cultural war.

He is currently at work on an edited volume focusing on historical equity in primary source selection. Dr. Hardesty previously taught band in upstate New York as well as the Washington DC area and won the 1991 Georgia Mountain Fair ping pong tournament, youth division.