Tawnya Smith

Dr. Tawnya D. Smith, affiliated faculty with the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), is an interdisciplinary researcher who explores expressive arts principles to promote holistic learning, wellbeing, and sustainability in music education settings. Her current research bridges across trauma and mental health, LGBTQIA+ studies, and ecopsychology and ecojustice informed music learning. Dr. Smith is the first in the field of music education to explore ecojustice, ecopsychology, and trauma-informed pedagogies to prepare educators for climate and social crisis. Her work focuses upon shifting educational practices and systems through ecojustice critique and drawing upon ecopsychology to support the difficult emotional aspects of rapid adaptation, and to cultivate resilience to extreme weather and related social stressors. She has a monograph titled Healing the Fragmentation of Psyche, Society, and Nature Through Music Education (Routledge, in press); has delivered international and national keynote and conference lectures; and leads the field in terms of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on this topic.

Tawnya has published articles in Music Education Research, International Journal of Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Frontiers in Education, String Research Journal, Journal of Applied Arts and Health, Music Educators Journal, and Gender and Education. She has contributed book chapters to Haunted Melodies: Trauma and Music Education; The Oxford Handbook of Musical Performance; Art as Research, Key Issues in Arts Education; Queering Freedom: Music, Identity, and Spirituality; and Authentic Connection: Music, Wellbeing, and Spirituality. She is co-author of the book Performance Anxiety Strategies and co-editor of Narratives and Reflections in Music Education: Listening to Voices Seldom Heard.

Dr. Smith is the Faculty Director of Lavender House, a living-learning community for LGBTQIA+ residents on the Boston University campus. She also currently teaches Arts as Active Hope: Reconnecting with Human and Non-Human Communities to Create a Sustainable Future; Creating Healthy Classrooms; Music Education Research; and Arts Integration.

Pronouns: she/they