Zack Moir
Zack Moir

Dr Zack Moir BA MMus PhD PGCAP PFHEA

Professor

 0131 455 2337

  Z.Moir@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

Prof Zack Moir is Professor of Music and School Academic Lead for Curriculum Design (School of Arts and Creative Industries). He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Zack’s research interests are in popular music in higher education, music education for social justice, and composition/improvisation pedagogies. Zack is the lead editor of ‘The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Education: Perspective and Practices’ (2019), an editor of ‘The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education’ (2017), and an editor of ‘Action Based Approaches in Popular Music Education (2021).

Zack is the Chair of the International Society for Music Education's Popular Music Special Interest Group and is on the Board of Directors of the Association for Popular Music Education. Zack is also an active composer/musician. Recent compositions include pieces for saxophone and tape, solo cello, and a reactive generative sound art installation for the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

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Conference Organising Activity

  • Conference Organiser - Continental Drift: A century of jazz on record
  • Conference Organiser - Continental Drift: 50 Years of Jazz from Europe

 

Editorial Activity

  • Editor of the Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Education: Perspectives and Practices
  • Editor of the Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education
  • Journal of Popular Music Education - Editorial Board Member

 

External Examining/Validations

  • External examiner for MMus Popular Music , Royal Northern College of Music
  • External Examiner for the INTO Graduate Diploma in Music, Newcastle University
  • External examiner for MMus Popular Music Performance, Academy of Music and Sound
  • External Examiner for MMus Popular Music Performance, University of West London

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

 

Invited Speaker

  • We Are NOT Neutral: A Freirian Critique of (Popular) Music in Higher Education (January 2020)
  • Moir, Z. & Stillie, B. (2019) Haphazard Pathways: Routes to Higher Popular Music Education and Impact on Curricula Design. Presented to City of Edinburgh Council Instrumental Music Service. 7th January 2014
  • Stillie, B & Moir, Z. (2019) The development of new Scottish music qualifications. Presented to City of Edinburgh Council Instrumental Music Service. 8th January 2019.

 

Media Activity

  • Newspaper Report Publicity for 'IDDM' (Composition) in The Scotsman
  • Radio Interview for 'IDDM' (Composition) - BBC Radio Scotland
  • 'Featured Thinker' - LILA Interactions (Indian Magazine Site)
  • Newspaper Report Publicity for 'IDDM' (Composition) in The National
  • National Newspaper Coverage for Transatlantic Interactive Music Making Project - The Hearld
  • National TV Coverage for World's First Real-Time Transatlantic Interactive Recording Session - ITV News

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Association for Popular Music Education - Elected Member of the Board of Directors
  • Association for Popular Music Education (Member)
  • Art of Record Production (Member)

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • 'Your Feedback is Important to Us' - Interactive Sound Art Installation at Edinburgh International Science Festival

 

Reviewing

  • Arts and Humanities in Higher Education
  • Journal of Music, Technology & Education (Book Reviewing)
  • Journal of Popular Music Education (Reviewer and Editorial Board Member)
  • Journal of the Art of Record Production (Reviewer)

 

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Date


103 results

Capitalist Realism and Higher Popular Music Education: Towards a Counter-Hegemonic Alternative

Journal Article
Moir, Z., Harvey, A., & Veldon, E. (2025)
Capitalist Realism and Higher Popular Music Education: Towards a Counter-Hegemonic Alternative. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 24(2), 186-215. https://doi.org/10.22176/act24.2.181
This article presents a theoretical consideration of some of the ways in which capitalist realism is shaping the field of higher popular music education. We begin by presentin...

The shifting sands of UK secondary music curricula: problematising relationships between aural training and music literacy

Journal Article
Donn, R., Stillie, B., & Moir, Z. (2024)
The shifting sands of UK secondary music curricula: problematising relationships between aural training and music literacy. Music Education Research, 26(1), 58-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2024.2309204
This article, which is intended as a contribution to wider conversations around music literacy, explores current conceptions of music literacy within the UK, using the area of...

Proceedings of the 18th International Audio Mostly Conference

Conference Proceeding
(2023)
Proceedings of the 18th International Audio Mostly Conference. . https://doi.org/10.1145/3616195
Audio Mostly is an interdisciplinary conference on design and experience of interaction with sound that prides itself on embracing applied theory and reflective practice. Its ...

Activating and Developing Free Improvisational Creativities in Higher Education: Contesting Authority, Exploring Creativities, Stimulating Dialogue

Book Chapter
Atton, C., Cowan, M., Docherty, H., Farnish, K., Moir, Z., & Pattie, E. (2022)
Activating and Developing Free Improvisational Creativities in Higher Education: Contesting Authority, Exploring Creativities, Stimulating Dialogue. In C. Randles, & P. Burnard (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Creativities in Music Education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003248194-35
This chapter explores the concept of improvisational creativities in higher education and the ways in which such an approach to music education is beneficial. We report on a c...

We Are Not Neutral: Popular Music Education, Creativity and the Active Creation of a Graduate Precariat

Book Chapter
Moir, Z. (2022)
We Are Not Neutral: Popular Music Education, Creativity and the Active Creation of a Graduate Precariat. In B. Powell, & G. D. Smith (Eds.), Places and Purposes of Popular Music Education: Perspectives from the Field (301-307). Intellect

Piano teachers’ perspectives on educational and professional aspects of instrumental graded exams in the United Kingdom

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Marinelli, A., & Moir, Z. (2022, September)
Piano teachers’ perspectives on educational and professional aspects of instrumental graded exams in the United Kingdom. Presented at 44th International Conference of the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA), Guimaraes, Portugal
Formal assessments in instrumental music education are much more than a snapshot-like summary of an achievement, although rarely considered within the entirety of their profes...

Belonging to the university or being in the world: From belonging to relational being

Journal Article
Graham, C., & Moir, Z. (2022)
Belonging to the university or being in the world: From belonging to relational being. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 19(4),
In a world characterised by supercomplexity, in which higher education (HE) is in the grip of neoliberal market forces (Barnett, 2000), it is incumbent upon participants in th...

Popular music, policy, and education

Book Chapter
Moir, Z., & Smith, G. (2022)
Popular music, policy, and education. In S. Homan (Ed.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Policy (91-108). Bloomsbury Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781501345357.ch-6
Extract: In this chapter we explore links between popular music, policy and education from two broad perspectives. We examine the impacts of popular music and cultural policy ...

Action-based Approaches in Popular Music Education

Book
Holley, S., Reinhert, K., & Moir, Z. (Eds.)
(2021). Action-based Approaches in Popular Music Education. Denver, CO: McLemore Ave Music

A Good Pair of Ears: Conceiving of and developing aural skills in popular music education

Book Chapter
Stillie, B., & Moir, Z. (2021)
A Good Pair of Ears: Conceiving of and developing aural skills in popular music education. In K. D. Cleland, & P. Fleet (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Aural Skills Pedagogy: Before, In and Beyond Higher Education. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429276392-18
When musicians and music educators consider aural training, many of us have a tendency to imagine students transcribing melodic dictation, identifying chord progressions, inte...

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • Devolved Researcher Award (£1680)
  • Principal's Teaching Award Scheme (£8777)
  • Higher Education Academy Workshop and Seminar Grant (£750)

Current Post Grad projects

Previous Post Grad projects