Marie McCarthy
Marie McCarthy is Professor of Music Education at the University of Michigan. She began her career as a public school teacher in Ireland. She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a Fulbright Scholarship, Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Council for Research in Music Education, Honorary Life Member of both the Society for Music Education in Ireland and the International Society for Music Education, and the 2022 Senior Researcher Award from the National Association for Music Education.
She teaches courses on general music, educational research, and foundational studies in music education. Her primary area of research is the history of music education and her most recent project documents historical narratives of African American music education. Author of two books and editor of numerous books, her research is also published in book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals. She has presented numerous keynote addresses internationally.
She was a member of several editorial boards and since 2015 has served as Editor of the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education. She held various offices including Chair of the History Special Research Interest Group of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), a member of the NAfME Music Education Research Council, and founding Chair of the History Standing Committee of the International Society for Music Education.
Huib Schippers
Huib Schippers is one of the world’s leading scholars on the crossroads of music education and cultural diversity. With partially overlapping careers in performance, education, research, journalism, the record trade, arts policy, and project management, he founded the World Music School in Amsterdam (1990-1996), worked with various conservatoires (1998-2003), and played a key role in realising the World Music & Dance Centre in Rotterdam (2001-2006). Next, he became Director of the innovative Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre (2003-2015) before moving to Washington DC as Director/Curator of the iconic Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (2016-2020), working on learning pathways through the collection. In 2022 he was invited to teach at UCLA as UC Regents’ Professor, and in 2023 he was the first visiting professor after COVID at Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.
Among over 200 publications from his hand for scholarly and general audiences, most noteworthy are his recent works Sustainable futures for music cultures: An ecological perspective (OUP, 2016) and Music, Communities, Sustainability: Developing policies and practices (OUP, 2022). Most influential to this day is his work on transforming music education to align with a rapidly changing world in Facing the music: Shaping music education from a global perspective (Oxford University Press (2010).
Anna Houmann
Anna Houmann serves as a professor at Malmö Academy of Music (Sweden). She is director of PhD programme in music education, coordinator and supervisor of degree projects, and director of educational sciences within the Music Education Programme. She is leading the practice-based research projects The digital student – computer as instrument in school and Students leading school change.
Her research explores themes as: music teachers’ discretionary power – possibilities and limitations, expanding the horizons of the possible in education, understanding the role of uncertainty and creative risk-taking play in creative expression, creative teaching and learning, developing dynamic creative research methods and music teacher training.