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Music, Culture and Community

This Library course guide will help students identify research related to intersectionality theory and anti-oppressive frameworks in relation to music therapy and community music practice.
 

Course Number: MU368

Subject: Music, Music Therapy, Music: Community Music

Greg Sennema

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Research terminology

Database

A collection of data (e.g., your contacts app on your phone). In library research, it is where you find articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers. Databases can be subject specific or interdisciplinary (e.g., Omni) and allow you to look for information about a subject across many sources.

Peer-reviewed article

Piece of research that has been published by an academic working in a specific field and is evaluated by several researchers or subject specialist in the academic community prior to accepting it for publication. 

Mitchell, E. (2021). Performing Identities and Performing Relationships: Community Music Therapy and Adolescent Mental Health. Music Therapy Perspectives, 39(2), 195–203. https://doi.org/10.1093/mtp/miab004

Scholarly journal

Scholarly publications published on a regular basis (e.g., each month) that focus on a specific discipline that contain articles (often peer-reviewed) written by researchers, professors, and other experts in a specific field that are intended for an academic audience, i.e., those that are doing research.

Music therapy journals

Scholarly book

Written by an expert - or experts - in the field and is intended for a specialized audience, and they use discipline specific methodology, terminology and theory to discuss and analyze original research. They are usually published by an academic press, e.g., Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis, etc.

Tutorial: How to find scholarly books

Morgan-Ellis, E. M., & Norton, K. (2024). The Oxford handbook of community singing. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197612460.001.0001 

Chapter in a scholarly book

Mitchell, E. (2021). Musical identities, personal Identities: Performance for children with disabilities. In L. Willingham (Ed.), Community music at the boundaries (pp. 315-333). Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Additional resource types

While academic research typically involves the use of books, book chapters, and peer-review articles, it is likely you will need to refer to other resources types. Knowing what you are looking for impacts the databases and resources you will use. Examples include:

  • Audio files (including podcasts)
  • Conference proceedings
  • Government information
  • Grey literature
  • Magazine articles
  • newspaper articles (including editorials or letters to the editor)
  • Primary sources
  • Reference sources
  • Videos

Whatever sources you use, remember to follow the APA Style Guide

Crenshaw, K. (2016). The urgency of intersectionality. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality 

GENAI

While using Generative AI (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT for academic research can be helpful in getting a general overview, explaining complex concepts in simpler terms, or generating keywords or search terms for databases, there are several important reasons why you should avoid relying on the well-known free tools as a primary or sole source for academic research.

  1. Limited language model
  2. Lack of source transparency
    • GenAI doesn’t cite sources unless explicitly asked, and even then, it can generate fake or inaccurate citations. This makes it unsuitable for producing verifiable, citable academic content.
  3. Potential for inaccuracy
    • While GenAI is generally reliable, it can produce confident-sounding but incorrect or misleading information, especially in niche or rapidly evolving fields.
  4. Lack of critical analysis
    • GenAI summarizes well but does not engage in deep, critical thinking or original analysis, which is essential for high-quality academic work.

If you do use GenAI, remember to acknowledge and/or cite the tool(s) you use.

Background Material

Use dictionaries, handbooks, guides, and manuals to quickly check information as you work on a particular topic. They provide a more comprehensive overview than an encyclopedia article, as well as useful lists of facts, formulae, and other important information. They are also the place to look for more practical, "how-to" information. For example:

You can search Omni for more ebooks on:

e.g., Edwards, J. (2016). The Oxford handbook of music therapy. Oxford University Press. http://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199639755.001.0001

e.g., Bartleet, B.-L., & Higgins, L. (2018). The Oxford handbook of community music. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190219505.001.0001

Search tips

The Laurier Library has a large number of concise tutorials that can help improve your searching. Some introductory ones include:

Books

Start with Omni

Articles

Instead of searching Music Therapy Journals individually, search a database that indexes them.

Start with Omni

If you are having difficulty sifting through the results of an Omni search, you can also try these Music specific databases:

Consider other interdisciplinary subject databases that may be helpful depending on your topic:

APA PsycInfo®

A comprehensive database for the field of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines.

More Info

SPORTDiscus

International database with citations for materials in sports medicine, exercise physiology, physical education and related fields.

More Info

Streaming Audio
CM/CoMT Initiative

The following sources provide examples you can use in designing your community music or community music therapy initiative.

Lenox, D. (2013). Music therapy program for adolescents at children are our future: A grant proposal. [Masters Thesis, California State University]; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (1417070119).

Rajan, R. S. (2016). Funding Music: Guidelines for Grant Writing in the Music Classroom. General Music Today, 30(1), 30–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048371316649641

Gitlin, L. N., & Lyons, K. J. (2014). Successful grant writing: strategies for health and human service professionals Springer.

For some guidance and examples of preparing a grant application, visit the Canada Council for the Arts.

APA Style Guide

The Laurier Library owns print copies of the APA Style Guide, but not the electronic version. However most information you will need to guide you for this class will be found on the APA Style guide website, or consulting the Purdue OWL site.

Remember that the APA Style Guide is more than just information on how to cite, it is also prescribes rules about how to write. Since in this class you are reviewing anti-oppressive principals, consider the APA guidelines:

Page Owner: Greg Sennema

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