The research projects carried out through our PhD programme allow participants to extend their learning through practice-based research. These studies also help us understand the impact of our work and evolve our approach, to better serve our clients. This is a selection of the innovative projects currently being overseen by our PhD students.
Researcher: Erinn Epp
This project looks at community music therapy and other related performances through an ‘ecological’ lens, focusing on how people separated by social differences might encounter each other during a performance and whether their experiences become part of their future attitudes and actions. Through ethnographically informed interview methods, it seeks to understand the possibilities opened up by musical performances for thinking about, experiencing and interacting with others.
Researcher: Jo Parsons
Inspired by ethnographic methods, this project focuses on musical practices within a mainstream school and how they contribute to an overall music ecology. By focusing on the interplay of music therapy, music education and music from everyday life, the thesis seeks to break through professional boundaries and provide new knowledge on what music and health practices can entail in a school setting.
Wendy McMahon
The project, currently in its pilot stage, involves tracing the adaptations of four professional musicians who are experiencing chronic illness or injury. It will study the workarounds, adaptive strategies and support networks they have developed to deal with the physical and psychological challenges that make it difficult (or even impossible) to play instruments in the ways they once could.
Researcher: Mario Eugster
This project investigates the role of culture in music therapy work with people experiencing psychosis. It aims to shed light on how the cultural background, lenses and assumptions of both the therapist and the client influence music therapy practice in this context. How do their cultural backgrounds, as well as the cultural milieu where music therapy happens, impact on the experience and interpretation of psychosis?