Sam Dorf
Samuel N. Dorf, Ph.D., is a teacher, scholar, artist, and advocate. He currently serves as the eighth endowed Alumni Chair in Humanities and Professor of Music at the University of Dayton. Sam has enjoyed learning from and with his students and colleagues at the University of Dayton since 2010. As a scholar he often writes on the continual performance and reinvention of music and dance from the ancient world and the complex relationship between scholars and their objects of study. He was honored to serve as President of the Academic Senate at UD from 2021 to 2023.
In 2023 he was awarded the College of Arts and Sciences Award for Outstanding Service. He currently serves as the Treasurer of the American Musicological Society, and sits on the boards of the Dayton Performance Arts Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League's Cleveland Office. Being a husband and a dad is still his favorite role.
Career
Sam Dorf was elected to Montgomery County, Ohio|Oakwood] City Council on November 4, 2025. He ran as an independent. Sam's plan on his website was “Promote small businesses and local innovation. Enhance sustainability initiatives and invest in efficient infrastructure. Work collaboratively with Public Safety, residents and the greater community to maintain our superior services. Listen and lead with integrity.”Incumbent Leigh Turben and newcomer Sam Dorf won the race for Oakwood City Council, according to final unofficial results from the Montgomery County Board of Elections. Newcomer Sarena Kelley lost but received 29.97% of the vote. Sam Dorf was officially sworn into office for the Oakwood City Council on Monday, January 5, 2026. The ceremony took place at 7:30 pm.
A campaign mailer in October 2025 paid for by the Montgomery County Republican Party questioned whether Dorf is a Marxist and stated that his friends, who were not named, say he is. Asked whether he considers himself a Marxist, Dorf said: “Absolutely not. It is absolutely a ridiculous statement. My wife and mother-in-law fled the Soviet Union.”
On 5 December 2024 when Dorf started off a story he said, “One day in 1999, a decade after the 'new' musicology was really new, and at the tail end of the culture wars of the ’80s and ’90s, I was an 18-year-old freshman and wannabe musicologist attending a job talk for a new hire in the musicology department at my undergraduate institution.”