معرفی
Leigh VanHandel serves as Chair of the Music Theory Division and Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of British Columbia's School of Music within the Faculty of Arts. Her academic journey includes a B.M. from Ohio State University, an M.M. from SUNY Stony Brook, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Dr. VanHandel's primary research focuses on music theory pedagogy, music cognition, the relationship between music and language, and computer-assisted research. Her scholarship seeks to understand how music works and how humans process music, with particular emphasis on applying cognitive research to music theory teaching methods. She investigates how best practices in STEM pedagogy can be adapted to music theory instruction, bridging scientific understanding with practical teaching applications.
Her recent publications include The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy (2021), which she edited and contributed to, and Oxford University Press's Music Theory Skill Builder, an online drill and practice program. These works reflect her commitment to developing innovative approaches to music education that incorporate cognitive science principles.
Dr. VanHandel directs the UBC VanLab, an interdisciplinary research group investigating music cognition, with current projects including the Tempo Project that examines how listeners perceive and process tempo in music. She also founded and hosts the Workshops in Music Theory Pedagogy at UBC, which brings together scholars to discuss current research and practices in the field.
Her service extends to editorial boards for Music Theory Spectrum, Music Perception, Empirical Musicology Review, and the Journal for Music Theory Pedagogy, as well as leadership roles in the Society for Music Theory and the Society for Music Perception and Cognition.
