AAMT Conference 2023

KEYNOTE:

Dr. Cynthia Bruce

Cynthia Bruce is an Assistant Professor and coordinator of Music Therapy programs at Concordia University. As a blind activist scholar working at the intersection of Critical Disability Studies, Music Therapy, and education, she works to mobilize lived disability knowledge to expose systemic inequity and formulate more just approaches to research and practice. Dr. Bruce has served as Vice-President and Ethics Chair of the Canadian Association of Music Therapists and as President of The Atlantic Association for Music Therapy. She recently co-led a substantive revision to the CAMT Code of Ethics, and as vice-chair of the Nova Scotia education standard development committee co-led the development of a comprehensive set of recommendations for an accessibility standard in education for the Nova Scotia Department of Justice. She is a 2022 recipient of the Concordia University Petro Canada Young Innovator Award for her project titled, Locked Down to Teach and Learn: A Critical Disability Studies Analysis of Disabled Student and Faculty Experience in the Age of COVID-19.

Dr. Bruce’s current work aims to bring Critical Disability Studies and disability justice to the centre of intersectional social justice work in Music Therapy and post-secondary education. Her teaching and research activities intentionally amplify the often silenced voices of disabled scholars and practitioners and position the lived experience of disability as a vital source of knowledge that can support and enhance social justice efforts in music therapy teaching, research, and practice.