About this Research
The inspiration for my research is directly related to my own experiences navigating music theory as a career path. I distinctly remember a jarring difference between my undergraduate-level music theory courses (which were assessed with worksheets, quizzes, and exams that had right or wrong answers), and my graduate-level music theory courses, which allowed for greater latitude for the “gray areas” of analysis and deeper engagement with my own critical thinking. In addition to this experience, now that I have a broader understanding of what music theory curricula traditionally value, which tends toward the marginalization of certain musics, genres, and composers, I aim to help combat some of these issues in my pedagogical research. I use critical pedagogy to help better align learning goals, calls to disciplinary reform, and more generally, the development of teaching practices and resources within music theory pedagogy. While I acknowledge that not all music theorists share the same experience as myself, and not every student in a music theory classroom will become a music theorist, I truly believe that undergraduate music theory can be better presented as a course filled with opportunities for critical thinking, support to empower students, and a landscape to discuss social justice topics (e.g. discussions that work toward exposing hidden curriculum that privileges Western Art Music or fostering greater diversity in the repertoire that we teach and value).
Dissertation: Coming Soon!
About Me
Hi! My name is Hannah Benoit. I acknowledge my standpoint as an educated, able-bodied, white, American, cisgendered woman. I acknowledge that my positionality influences my research, and I hold myself to a high standard of constant reflection through this research process to be aware of any biases or assumptions I carry.
I am currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Music Theory at McGill University and adjunct faculty member at Bunker Hill Community College. My teaching experience spans a wide range of instructional formats comprising small liberal arts, community college, and large research institutions. I have held multiple teaching positions as an adjunct faculty member, course instructor, and teaching assistant in both the music theory and aural skills core sequences. My doctoral dissertation, co-advised by faculty in music theory and music education, is the first large-scale study of critical pedagogy within the context of music theory.
As Freire states: “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other” (Freire 1970, 72). I hope that this website serves as a place for dialogue for which we may all move educational practices forward in the music theory discipline. Please feel free to contact me, download anything that you find interesting, join in the forum page, and most of all, be courteous with each other as we may be discussing sensitive topics.