Samantha Chang 張秋暘 (she/her) is an art historian, classical musician, and educator. She is Team Lead, Pedagogy and Educational Technologies at the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation and an instructor in the Department of Art History at the University of Toronto.
Her art-historical research explores relationships between painting and music in early modern Europe. Bringing art history, musicology, and sensory history into dialogue, her doctoral dissertation, Listening to Painting, Seeing Music: Musical Self-Portraits in Italy and the Netherlands, c. 1540–1665, considers how musical objects and practices provided painters with ways of reflecting on artistic identity, perception and judgement, material practice, and artistic knowledge.
In teaching and learning, Samantha leads institutional initiatives on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), supporting instructors in designing accessible, inclusive, and usable learning experiences across disciplines. Her work focuses on practical, design-oriented approaches to teaching that reduce learning barriers and welcome learner variability. Samantha is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and the recipient of the University of Toronto Course Instructor Teaching Excellence Award (2021), the Arts & Science Superior Teaching Award (2024), and the Universities Art Association of Canada Teaching Excellence Award (2025).
Samantha is also a professional flutist and conductor. She trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London and is a Fellow of Trinity College London and the London College of Music. Her work across art history, music, and education continues to shape how she thinks about perception, interpretation, communication, and learning.