Staff Profile
Ruth Currie
Research Associate
I lead the ICCM’s Music for Health in Morecambe project, exploring how value is understood and communicated across a music and health partnership in Morecambe. I am also Co-Investigator on ICCM’s MOVE (Music and Organizer’s Volunteer Exchange) evaluation, exploring how organizational learning has developed through 12 years of intercultural partnership working.
My PhD research considered the intersections of community music and cultural policy in the UK and my current research interests are focused on the role of music leaders in cultural policy. I am a visiting lecturer at York St John and a freelance cultural sector researcher, based in Glasgow, UK.
X (formerly known as Twitter): @ruthycurrie
- School – School of the Arts
- Email – r.currie@yorksj.ac.uk
Research
Thesis title: Been, being and becoming More Music: A critical ethnographic case study of the role and responsibility of a community music organisation
My PhD explores tensions in community music as cultural leadership when represented at an institutional position. I employ Bourdieu’s conceptual tools of field, doxa, capital and habitus as a way in which to understand how a community music organisation’s local and international position has influenced the way it understands its situated role and responsibility as a cultural leader. I invite Derrida’s hospitality, looking specifically through Higgins’ conceptualisation of community music as hospitality, as a theoretical lens through which to question the conceptual tensions of an institutionalization of community music, as it exists within the structures of arts and cultural policy in the UK.
Music for Health in Morecambe (funded by More More Music and Spirit 2012).
Publications
Currie, R. Continuing to question a ‘chameleonic practice’. Community Music Activity Pre-Seminar, International Society of Music Education [online] available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrumsKJJF28 (July 2020).
Currie, R., Gibson, J., Lam, C. L. (2020). Community music as intervention – three doctoral researchers consider intervention from their different contexts, International Journal of Community Music. 13 (2).
Currie, R., Higgins, M., Brindle, T. and Clift, S. (2020). Singing for Health in Morecambe. International Centre for Community Music, York St John University: York.
Currie, R., Higgins, L. (2019). From problem to progression: [re]conceptualising a young people’s music programme in the UK. In Kaufman, B., Scripp, L. Music with a mission: Routledge: New York.
Currie, R. (2018). Researcher identity: critical ethnographic reflections on locating myself in the field. Transform: New voices in community music. 1 (1).
Currie, R. (2018). Are we at risk of replicating colonizing behaviours? [online] Available at: https://learn.rcm.ac.uk/courses/1240/pages/rc-perspectives (Accessed: 17.5.18).
Currie, R., Gibson, J. (2017). The International Centre for Community Music with Sound Sense community music student research symposium 2017. Sounding Board, December 2017. Sound Sense: UK.
Currie, R. (2016). Sounding Off: The Right and Responsibility of Early-Career Researchers in Building Communities of Practice, Sounding Board, Sound Sense: UK
Conference papers and workshops
Cassidy, K., Currie, R., Parks, J. Social sustainability and creative practice. Nordic annual geographers meeting. Trondheim (June 2019).
Currie, R. Community music as a growing global research field – a UK perspective. Beijing International Music & Life Show and National Music Education Conference. Beijing (May 2019).
Currie, R. Exploring ideas through community music (workshop). Beijing International Music & Life Show and National Music Education Conference. Beijing (May 2019).
Currie, R. The street conductor and the doorway parade: exploring participation inside and outside of measurable impact. Community Music Activity Pre-Seminar, International Society of Music Education. Tbilisi (July 2018).
Currie, R. From problem to progression: reframing youth programmes in a community music organisation in the UK. International Society of Music Education world conference. Baku (July 2018).
Currie, R., Gibson, J. Community across continents: Peer networks in doctoral scholarship as a mechanism to support critical reflection and wellbeing. International Society of Music Education world conference. Baku (July 2018).
Currie, R. The role and responsibility of a community music organisation in the lives of a ‘vulnerable’ community. Breaking boundaries: Community music research symposium, Teachers College, Columbia University. New York (May 2018).
Currie, R. More Music as cultural leadership: Exploring the influence of status on community music in the West End of Morecambe.Community music conference, Free University of Bolzano. Brizen (November 2017).
Currie, R. Fluid researcher identity: Managing the complex researcher/participant and professional relationships in case study research.ICCM student research symposium, York St John University. York (November 2017).
Currie, R., Gibson, J. A community of community music researchers. Walking the boundaries, bridging the gaps: International community music conference. Wilfrid Laurier. Waterloo (May 2017).
Higgins, L., Currie, R., Gibson, J., Murata, M. Lines of flight: ICCM as a crucible for PhD research. Community Music Activity Pre-Seminar, International Society of Music Education. Edinburgh (July 2016).
Currie, R. Moser, P., MacDonald, K. Deeper local: The Hothouse and the West End of Morecambe. Community Music Activity Pre-Seminar, International Society of Music Education. Edinburgh (July 2016).
Currie, R., Owens, K. The perspectives toolkit as a resource for cultural organisations. Youth work, informal education and the arts: Exploring the research and practice agenda. In association with the British Educational Research Association (BERA). Nottingham. (March 2015).
Seminars
Currie, R., Baughan, K. More Music. How can communities challenging neighbourhood Stigma? ESRC Festival workshop. London (November 2017).
Currie, R. Music and Social Intervention, Musoc: An introduction. University of Aberdeen Lunchinar Series. Aberdeen (January 2018).
Currie, R. Being a community music organisation: The case of More Music. York St John Research Lunch Series, York St John University. York (Feburary, 2018).
Currie, R. Who Waves Back? Working out how status influences ownership in community arts engagement, Edinburgh College guest lecture series, Edinburgh (January, 2017)
