Joseph Straus is a music theorist specializing in music of the twentieth century, with research interests that include set theory, voice-leading in post-tonal music, the music of Stravinsky, and the music of Ruth Crawford Seeger. He has authored or edited twelve books, the most recent being Extraordinary Measures: Disability in Music (2011) and Twelve-tone Music in America (2009). His book Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory is a standard college textbook on this topic, and Remaking the Past (1990) received the Wallace Berry award from the Society for Music Theory (SMT). Straus, who earned his Ph.D. at Yale University, served as president of the SMT from 1997 to 1999.