Research group

Centre for Music Education and Social Justice

2 fingers pointing at sheet music on a piano

We are advocates for equality in music education. We bring together music practitioners and local, national and international partners in conversations about social justice and the alleviation of inequality, powerlessness and discrimination.

Part of Music

About

We support the University of Southampton’s strategic vision for greater inclusiveness in our communities. We see equity and diversity as strengths.

Our centre is a main point of contact between the University and communities of musical practice. We connect with communities in our region, across the UK, and globally. We help these communities to explore the social justice aspects of music education.

We host regular events such as talks, interactive concerts and workshops. Through our events, we support innovative research on looking at music education. This research can take practical, pedagogical, therapeutic, theoretical and historical perspectives.

We recently held a roundtable event, in collaboration with the Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities. At this event, we explored how the University might respond to the House of Commons report, Misogyny in Music. This report outlines some of the inequalities faced by women in the music industry. Read about our Misogyny in Music roundtable.

We also support postgraduate study on themes of social justice at postgraduate level. We work with other academic disciplines too.

The main aims and focuses of our centre are:

  • promoting interdisciplinary and widening research
  • empowering early career researchers and future leaders in music education research
  • educational and policy enhancement
  • improving community access
  • supporting continuing professional development

Our director, Dr Erin Johnson-Williams, is a music historian. Her research addresses decolonisation, the imperial legacies of music education and trauma studies. Other research interests include gender and maternity, hymns and race. She has also worked on exploring soundscapes of colonial violence. You can contact Erin at e.johnson-williams@soton.ac.uk 

Our deputy director, Dr Chiying Lam works on music and inclusion, music education research methods and community music.

Together they lead a team of scholars, practitioners, composers and performers. The team is dedicated to the study of inequality in music education. They work to create more inclusive and fair access to music, for everyone.

People, projects, publications and PhDs

People

Dr Amy Williamson PhD

Teaching Fellow in Music

Research interests

  • Medieval English polyphony
  • Music and EDI (more specifically, Music and Class in HE and Music and Disability)
  • Gender and sexuality in popular music
Connect with Amy

Professor Andrew Pinnock

Professor

Research interests

  • Arts management and cultural policy; cultural economics
  • Seventeenth-century English opera
  • Aspects of organology, especially the early twentieth-century English recorder revival.
Connect with Andrew

Dr Benjamin Oliver

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Composition (Instrumental and Electronic)
  • Conducting Research
  • Sonification

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Benjamin

Dr Chiying Lam BEd, MA, PhD, FRSPH

Lecturer in Community Music and Scl Jstc

Research interests

  • Post-colonial discourses of power & identity within the music practitioners' community
  • Musicians' pedagogical practice
  • Music education research methods

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Chiying

Mr Dan Mar-Molinero

Principal Teaching Fellow
Connect with Dan

Dr David Bretherton

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Queer Music Theory
  • 19th-Century European Art Song
  • Theories of European Common-Practice Harmony
Connect with David

Dr Erin Johnson-Williams

Lecturer Music Educ and Social Justice

Research interests

  • Decolonisation
  • Imperial legacies of music education
  • Trauma studies

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Erin

Mrs Helen Dromey

Principal Teaching Fellow
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Dr Hettie Malcomson

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Anthropology and sociology of music
  • Ethnomusicology
  • Analysing social inequalities through the ethnographic study of music
Connect with Hettie

Dr Kwame Phillips

Senior Lecturer in Media Practices

Research interests

  • Sensory Media Production
  • Multimodal and Experimental Methodologies
  • Race and Social Justice

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Kwame

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Related research institutes, centres and groups

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Get in touch

We welcome enquiries.