Laura Benjamins
Music Education
Office: TC 425
Email: ldielema@uwo.ca
Laura Benjamins is a PhD candidate in Music Education at Western University and is passionate about the interdisciplinary connections between music education, community music, and church music. Her SSHRC-funded doctoral research focuses on church musicians’ perceptions of their musicking practices in religious worship contexts.
Laura holds undergraduate degrees in Piano Performance and Education (Redeemer University), an ARCT in Piano Performance through the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and a MMus in Music Education (Western University). She continues to work as an undergraduate music course instructor at Redeemer University and Western University. Her experiences both as an elementary school music educator in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, as well as an active church musician, have significantly shaped her university teaching.
Laura has presented on church music, informal music learning, social justice, and experiential learning in various national and international conferences including the Research in Music Education (RiME) conference, International Society for Philosophy in Music Education conference, Durham University’s Church Music and Worship conference, among others. Several of her papers can be found in journals such as Journal of Popular Music Education and Canadian Music Educator.
