Elizabeth MacGregor
Joanna Randall-MacIver Junior Research Fellow
Elizabeth is the Joanna Randall-MacIver Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College, University of Oxford.
She previously studied at the Universities of Cambridge and Sheffield, and, following the completion of her doctorate in 2022, she held positions with the Sheffield Performer and Audience Research Centre and the Birmingham Music Education Research Group. At present she is also an external member of the Group for Research in Music Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University, and sits on the advisory panel for the national evaluation of Arts Council England’s Creativity Collaboratives. Elizabeth is the Assistant Editor for the international peer-reviewed journal, Research Studies in Music Education, and the recipient of an Early Career Researcher Career Development Fellowship from the British Educational Research Association.
Elizabeth’s current research focusses on the notion of ‘musical vulnerability’ – our inherent and situational openness to being affected (both positively and negatively) by the properties of music-making. She is working closely alongside music teachers at three secondary schools to understand how musical vulnerability is realised in classroom teaching and learning, and how it can be accounted for through ‘pedagogies of vulnerability’. She is also in the process of developing new resources for equipping pre-service music teachers to respond to experiences of musical vulnerability in diverse settings. Her research intersects with broader issues of inclusion, access, and care in music education, and has led to related projects in areas ranging from community singing to neurodiverse concert audiences.
Publications
Monograph
MacGregor, E. H. (forthcoming). Musical vulnerability: Receptivity, susceptibility & care in the music classroom. Routledge.
Edited Collections
Anderson, A., Cooke, C., Kinsella, V., & MacGregor, E. H. (Eds.) (forthcoming). Learning to teach music in the secondary school (4th ed.). Routledge.
Book Chapters
MacGregor, E. H. (forthcoming). Reframing music education through the lens of musical vulnerability. In C. Philpott & G. Spruce (Eds.), Debates in music teaching (2nd ed.). Routledge.
MacGregor, E. H. (2022). Exploring performing. In C. Cooke & C. Philpott (Eds.), A practical guide to teaching music in the secondary school(2nd ed.). Routledge.
MacGregor, E. H. (2021). Repeats & refrains; Musical revisionism. In J. Finney, C. Philpott, & G. Spruce (Eds.), Creative & critical projects in classroom music: Fifty years of Sound & Silence (pp. 203–208; 217–221). Routledge.
Finney, J. & MacGregor, E. H. (2021). Propaganda, protest & politics. In J. Finney, C. Philpott, & G. Spruce (Eds.), Creative & critical projects in classroom music: Fifty years of Sound & Silence (pp. 163–168). Routledge.
Journal Articles
Axtell, I., Anderson, A., Fautley, M., MacGregor, E. H., & Nenadic, E. (forthcoming). Beowulf Opera Scenes: Classroom music pedagogy & knowledge when composing an opera with primary-school children. Research Studies in Music Education.
Kinsella, V., MacGregor, E. H., & Nenadic, E. (forthcoming). Characterising affective and situational dimensions of creativity in the primary classroom through a posthuman lens. Education 3–13.
MacGregor, E. H. & Pitts, S. E. (forthcoming). ‘I don’t care who joins my choir’: Investigating attitudes to diversity & inclusion in lower- & upper-voice choirs in the United Kingdom. International Journal of Community Music.
Abbott, E. H. R., Critten, A., & MacGregor, E. H. (forthcoming). Relaxed Performances: Supporting aural diversity & neurodiversity among concert audiences in the United Kingdom. Sound Studies.
MacGregor, E. H. (2024). Please mind the gap: Reflecting on gender inequality in music higher education, one year on from Slow Train Coming. Music Education Research, 26(1), 88–95.
MacGregor, E. H. (2024). Characterizing musical vulnerability: Toward a typology of receptivity & susceptibility in the secondary music classroom. Research Studies in Music Education, 46(1), 28–47.
MacGregor, E. H. (2022). Conceptualizing musical vulnerability. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 30(1), 24–43.
MacGregor, E. H. (2020). Participatory performance in the secondary music classroom & the paradox of belonging. Music Education Research, 22(2), 229–241.
Bate, E. H. (2020). Justifying music in the National Curriculum: The habit concept & the question of social justice & academic rigour. British Journal of Music Education, 37(1), 3–15.